recommendations from the CVBD World Forum

The human-animal bond has been a fundamental feature of mankind's history for millennia. The first, and strongest of these, man's relationship with the dog, is believed to pre-date even agriculture, going back as far as 30,000 years. It remains at least as powerful today. Fed by the changing nature of the interactions between people and their dogs worldwide and the increasing tendency towards close domesticity, the health of dogs has never played a more important role in family life. Thanks to developments in scientific understanding and diagnostic techniques, as well as changing priorities of pet owners, veterinarians are now able, and indeed expected, to play a fundamental role in the prevention and treatment of canine disease, including canine vector-borne diseases (CVBDs).The CVBDs represent a varied and complex group of diseases, including anaplasmosis, babesiosis, bartonellosis, borreliosis, dirofilariosis, ehrlichiosis, leishmaniosis, rickettsiosis and thelaziosis, with new syndromes being uncovered every year. Many of these diseases can cause serious, even life-threatening clinical conditions in dogs, with a number having zoonotic potential, affecting the human population.Today, CVBDs pose a growing global threat as they continue their spread far from their traditional geographical and temporal restraints as a result of changes in both climatic conditions and pet dog travel patterns, exposing new populations to previously unknown infectious agents and posing unprecedented challenges to veterinarians.In response to this growing threat, the CVBD World Forum, a multidisciplinary group of experts in CVBDs from around the world which meets on an annual basis, gathered in Nice (France) in 2011 to share the latest research on CVBDs and discuss the best approaches to managing these diseases around the world.As a result of these discussions, we, the members of the CVBD Forum have developed the following recommendations to veterinarians for the management of CVBDs

Vector-Borne Diseases - constant challenge for practicing veterinarians: recommendations from the CVBD World Forum

The human-animal bond has been a fundamental feature of mankind's history for millennia. The first, and strongest of these, man's relationship with the dog, is believed to pre-date even agriculture, going back as far as 30,000 years. It remains at least as powerful today. Fed by the changing nature of the interactions between people and their dogs worldwide and the increasing tendency towards close domesticity, the health of dogs has never played a more important role in family life. Thanks to developments in scientific understanding and diagnostic techniques, as well as changing priorities of pet owners, veterinarians are now able, and indeed expected, to play a fundamental role in the prevention and treatment of canine disease, including canine vector-borne diseases (CVBDs)

Heat pretreatment of canine samples to evaluate efficacy of imidacloprid + moxidectin and doxycycline in heartworm treatment

Abstract Background Considering the recent information on the increase of Dirofilaria immitis antigen detection by rapid assays in canine blood samples after heat treatment, the proposal that immune complexes block D. immitis antigen detection and that macrocyclic lactone + doxycycline (alternative protocol) might lead to increased production of those immune complexes, resulting in the erroneous diagnosis of adult worm elimination, and that there is no recommended adulticide marketed in Brazil, a study was performed to evaluate the interference of moxidectin + doxycycline (moxi-doxy) on diagnostic procedures when heartworm positive dogs are treated with this alternative protocol. Twenty-two naturally infected pet dogs were treated monthly with topical 10% imidacloprid + 2.5% moxidectin and with oral doxycycline (10 mg/kg BID/30 days) (moxi-doxy). All the dogs had their microfilaremia level determined prior to the first day of treatment, and were tested every 6 months for microfilariae (Mf) detection prior to heating, and for antigen detection prior to and after heating, the sample. Results The results indicate that the treatment protocol can eliminate adult heartworms as early as 6 months after the first dose, especially in low microfilaremic dogs (< 300 Mf/ml). In this study, all dogs were free of heartworm antigen after 18–24 months of treatment. In a comparison of pre-heated samples and non-heated samples, sample pre-heating increased antigen detection sensitivity, and non-heated samples tended to be antigen-negative earlier than the pre-heated samples, especially when dogs had low microfilaremia levels. These discrepancies were not present in a subsequent sample of the same dog 6 months later. Conclusions Two negative antigen test results 6 months apart can be recommended as the criterion to consider when a dog has been cleared of infection. The initial microfilaremia level of a dog can be used to estimate the necessary time frame to end the treatment period