A Survey of professional and public awareness of parasitic infestation in pet dogs of Queensland

9% of survey complete.

Principal Investigator: Dr Swaid Abdullah

Dr Swaid Abdullah
Lecturer Veterinary Parasitology
School of Veterinary Sciences
The University of Queensland
swaid.abdullah@uq.edu.au

Prof Malcolm Jones
Professor
School of Veterinary Sciences
The University of Queensland
m.jones@uq.edu.au

Dr Aaron Herndon
Snr Lecturer- Small Animal Medicine
School of Veterinary Sciences
The University of Queensland
a.herndon@uq.edu.au

Project description

Australia has one of the highest rates of pet ownership in the world. According to the Pet Ownership in Australia report (2016), 62% of the Australian households have pets, and among these 38.5% have dogs. Australia has 4.8 million dogs (20 per 100 people), with 1.3 dogs per household. Some 37% of Queensland households have dogs and this number is on the rise. As with other animal species, dogs are infected with various parasites, which not only affect their health and wellbeing but also some of these parasites are serious zoonoses for humans.

Research Aims

This survey contributes to a broader research programme investigating the parasites of dogs. The specific aim of this survey is to look into the level of parasite infestation of pet dogs living in urban and suburban areas of southeast Queensland and identify associated risk factors and to estimate the efficacy of the currently used anti-parasitic drugs.

Research plan

The proposed study will work around public parks and gardens in the urban and suburban areas of Queensland. The study involves the participation of the dog owners visiting public parks and gardens with their dogs. The participation of the dog owners is voluntary, none of the participants will be reimbursed for this survey, and no penalty will be imposed on the participant if he or she wishes to withdraw from the survey at any point.

The participants will be asked to provide faecal samples of their dog and will be asked to respond to an online survey. The faecal sample and the survey response from the owner will be linked through an identification number provided to the owner in the park on faecal sample collection. This number will be later included in the online survey response and will help in linking the online survey questionnaire response to the dog faecal samples.

The survey questionnaire will be asking the residential address of the participant in order to get the location of the collection of faecal samples, which will be further used in developing a parasite distribution map. The participant will also be asked questions regarding their awareness about dog parasites and about their dog. The dog owner participation is one time only, the project will be run for one year (01-04-2019 to 31-04-2020).

The faecal samples collected from the dogs will be brought to the School of Veterinary Sciences, Gatton, UQ for analysis. The samples will be examined for various parasites. Similarly, all the information obtained from the questionnaire survey will be stored and analysed. All this information will data protected and will not be used for any other purpose apart from research.

Results after analysis and interpretation will be channelled back in a simplified format (pamphlets/brochures) to the caretakers of the public parks and gardens to improve the knowledge of the public about the risk of various dog parasites in their area. We will also endeavour to use results for educating dog owners about the importance of regular treatment of their dogs and of cleaning up their surrounding of dog faeces for better control of parasites and potential zoonoses.

This study will provide a deeper insight into the extent of parasitic infestation in dogs and potential zoonoses in Queensland. It will also aid in checking the efficacy of the antiparasitic drugs and possible drug resistance in parasites.