veterinary parasitology Introduction morphology Life cycle Pathogenesis Clinical signs Diagnosis Treatment and Control

1. ANCYLOSTOMA CANINUM
Dr. Dhaval F. Chaudhary
(B.V.Sc. & A.H.)
College Of Veterinary Science And Animal Husbandry, AAU, ANAND

2. Introduction
 Family : Ancylostomatidae
 Sub family : Ancylostominae
 Genus : Ancylostoma
 Species : ancylostoma caninum
 Host : Dog
 Location : small intenstine
 Common name : Hook Worm of Dog

3. Morphology
 They are fairly rigid Grey or
reddish in colour depending upon
the amount of blood in the
intestine.
 Buccal capsule is well developed
It contains 3 pair of ventral teeth.
 Eggs are oval thin shelled contains
8 cell stages.
 The ant end bend dorsally.
Male : 1-1.2 cm; Female : 1.4-1.6 cm

4. Life cycle

5.  In A.caninum, infection occurs in four ways,
 Oral ingestion
 Skin penetration.
 Prenatal.
 Transmammary infection

6.  Oral ingestion
 Following oral ingestion of infective larvae either
directly develops to mature or the infective larvae
penetrate the oral mucosa and follow the tracheal route
of migration.
 Finally the infective stage reaches the intestine and
develops to adult.
 Skin penetration
 Following skin penetration, the infective larvae reaches
the lungs via circulation and then follow the tracheal
route of migration.
 Finally enter the intestine where it develops to adult.

7.  Prenatal infection
 In older bitches following oral ingestion or skin penetration,
a few larvae directly develops to adult but majority of the
larvae follows somatic migration and remain dormant in the
tissue until pregnancy.
 In the pregnant bitches dormant larvae is activated by the
hormonal influence.
 These activated larvae enter the foetus via placental
circulation. The worms do not mature until birth of the pups.
 They mature with in 30 days of birth of pups and eggs can
be seen in faeces. Prenatal infection is common in pups.

8.  Transmammary infection
 The larvae passed to pups via colostrum they
directly develop to adult without any migration.
 Paratenic host may also involved (rodents) infection
is by ingestion of infected rodents.

9. Pathogenesis
 Heavy infection occurs in young puppies below one
year old. Smaller breeds are severely affected than
larger breed.
 Worms are attached to intestinal wall (mucosa) with the
help of well-developed buccal capsule and suck the
blood.
 The worms frequently change the site of attachment.
Hence numerous necrotic foci are seen. Since
anticoagulants are found in the secretion of worms the
blood continuously oozes from the site of attachment.
 In heavy infection puppies becomes anaemic because
each worms suck about 0.001 ml per day.

10.  Development of anaemia coincides with
emerging L5 stage because it has developed buccal
capsule (the anaemia is microcytic hypochromic).
 In dogs due to skin penetration by L3 causes
dermatitis and swelling of s/c tissue.
 There will be decrease in RBC - Hb content and also
haemorrhage in the lungs and pneumonia due to
larval migration.

11. Clinical sign
 Anaemia, it depends upon the age of the host,
nutritional status and iron reserve.
 Mucous membrane will be pale, diarrhoea with
bloody mucous and passing tarry red coloured
faeces.
 Oedema of legs and dependant part, coat become
dry and harsh in nature and stunted growth will be
seen.

12. Pale Mucus membraneOedema of leg

13. Diagnosis
 Clinical signs.
 Fecal examination:
 By fecal flotation method where the stool is mixed with
a solution that causes the parasite eggs to float to the
top of the solution and adhere to glass slide placed on
its surface since there are many eggs produced daily
and the eggs have unique appearance.
 In very young puppies detection is less reliable because
it takes 2-3 weeks for hookworm larvae to mature and
producing eggs.

14. Eggs of Ancylostoma

15. Treatment and control
 Disophenol - 7.5 mg / kg b wt. - s/c.
 Mebendazole - 40 mg / kg b wt.
 Tetramisole - 7.5 mg / kg b wt. – s/c .
 Fenbendazole - 20 mg / kg b wt or 100 mg / kg
single dose 100% effective.
 Regularly deworming should be carried out for
preventing infections.

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Being Vet.!!