Dermatitis associated with Dirofilaria repens microfilariae in a dog from Rome

摘要

Subcutaneous dirofilariasis due to Di,vfilaria (Nochtiella) repens is a helminthic zoonosis, widely distributed in Europe, Asia, and Africa and nowadays reported with increased frequency in both humans (Pampiglione & Rivasi, 2000) and dogs (Tarello,1999). The higher prevalences are found in dogs from Sri Lanka (30-60 percent) (Dissanaike et al., 1997) and from Italy (20.5-39 percent) (Rossi et al., 1996, Marconcini et al., 1996). Intermediate hosts are Anopheles, Aedes, and Culex spp. and the defnitive hosts are dogs, cats, foxes, and other wild carnivores (Marconcini et al., 1996). Man is an accidental host of the nematode and Italy is apparently the most affected country in the world (Pampiglione & Rivasi, 2000). The distribution of human casesfollows the distribution of microfilaraemia observed in dogs and cats (Pampiglione et al., 1995; Tarello, 2000a-c).