Prevalence of Gastrointestinal Parasites in Stray Cats of İzmir
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Date
2021
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Abstract
Gastrointestinal parasites of cats can affect animal health and welfare, as well as human health because of some zoonotic
parasites including Toxoplasma gondii, Cryptosporidium spp., Isospora spp., Blastocystis sp., and Toxocara spp. Therefore, it is
fairly important to investigate the presence of gastrointestinal parasites in stray cats in order to reveal the frequency of parasite
diseases and to prevent the spread of parasitic diseases. A total of 465 feces samples were collected from Veterinary Clinics located
in 5 different districts of İzmir. For microscopic examination, all feces samples were processed by centrifugation-sucrose flotation.
In addition, cat feces with diarrhea were stained by the by Kinyoun acid-fast staining for the diagnosis of Cryptosporidium spp. As
a result, 73 of 465 (15.6%) cats were found to be infected with at least one of the following parasites: Blastocystis sp., Isospora
spp., Cryptosporidium spp., Toxoplasma gondii-like oocyte, Toxocara spp., Hymenolepis spp. and Dipylidium caninum. Among the
studied stray cats, Blastocystis sp. was detected as the most prevalent protozoon parasite (10.5%) in stray cats. Overall, the results
show that stray cats are a significant source for distribution of various parasite diseases to humans and animals in İzmir, Turkey.