Falklands : Hydatids: Trial Results and Implications for the future treatment of dogs
Submitted by Falkland Islands News Network (Juanita Brock) 23.07.2011 (Article Archived on 06.08.2011)
In the morning session of Farmers’ Week on Wednesday, 06 July 2011 Mr Steve Pointing, Senior Veterinary officer presented trial results from last year’s Hydatid tests carried out on the faeces of all dogs in the Falklands.
FARMERS WEEK COVERAGE:
Compiled by J. Brock (FINN)
Hydatids: Trial Results and Implications for the future treatment of dogs
A presentation by Steve Pointing
In the morning session of Farmers’ Week on Wednesday, 06 July 2011 Mr Steve Pointing, Senior Veterinary officer presented trial results from last year’s Hydatid tests carried out on the faeces of all dogs in the Falklands. In short the disappointing news was that the disease has not been eradicated from the Falkland Islands despite 35 years of dosing all dogs every 42 days (six weeks).
Several overhead slides were shown to bring home the point that a small percentage of the 568 dogs tested had Hydatid tapeworms in their intestines that shed eggs at regular intervals and were eliminated in the animal’s faeces.
Tests were conducted in September 2010 when faeces samples were taken from the dogs, treated and sent to a lab in the UK. When the results returned, 16 were inconclusive and 2 came back positive. After treating 18 relevant “B” samples and sending them back to the same lab, 8 of the 18 came back positive.
What baffled him was that 3 of the 8 positive tests were of pet dogs and not working dogs. The decision was taken to dose dogs every 30 days with either Droncit or Drontal. It was thought that the tapeworms in the Falklands may have a different genetic make-up and that the eggs were shed at shorter intervals than was presently catered for by dosing.
Mr Pointing told FIRS on 19 July that since results were received the 8 infected dogs were aggressively dosed and their faeces samples were sent to the lab for analysis.
Results of the newer tests on infected dogs will be forthcoming.
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