Abstract

Stray dogs act as reservoir for numerous zoonotic diseases and pose a potential public health threat to Pakistani population. Our aim was to elucidate them as sentinels of zoonotic parasites in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan. A total of 1195 faecal samples collected from 11 districts, for a period of 4 years (2020 to 2023) were tested for the presence of parasite eggs/larvae through microscopy using standard floatation/sedimentation techniques. Data for differences was analyzed through chi square test and for association was tested by logistic and Poisson regression at significance level of P ≤ 0.05 using SPSS software. Ten different helminths including eight zoonotic parasites were detected in 291(24.4%) samples. Most common parasites found were Ancylostoma caninum (7.7%) and Toxocara canis (7.6%) while Trichuris vulpis and Physaloptera were least prevalent (0.3%). With no consistent regional trends among districts, prevalence was highest in district Mardan (37.3%) followed by Dir Lower (36.2%) and lowest in Dir Upper (16.2%). Most of the districts had prevalence range between 18% and 25%. Echinococcus/Taenia spp. was found the most widespread parasite detected in all studied districts, while Physaloptera was found only in two districts. Most (18.2%) of the positive samples were infected with single type while only 6.2% were infected with two or more types of parasites. In general, significant differences were observed in prevalence of parasite in different seasons where highest prevalence was recorded in winter, regional distribution with southern districts having highest prevalence and prevalence decreased with conceding years. It is concluded that stray dogs act as reservoir for zoonotic parasites in the study area contaminating the environment and posing a potential risk for human transmission. Further studies on molecular basis are recommended to find out their genotypes and device control measures.