Study on prevalence of canine parvoviral diarrhoea in dogs in and around Gannavaram, Andhra Pradesh

Introduction

The canine parvo viral (CPV) enteritis which is a highly contagious, virulent, acute and fatal gastrointestinal viral disease that targets primarily the pups and collapses the body's posthaste branching organs causing bloody diarrhoea amidst a high mortality and morbidity rate (Mia and Hasan, 2021) [6] . CPV belongs to the genus protoparvo virus, family parvoviridae, a single-stranded DNA virus that infects rapidly dividing cells of the gastrointestinal tract, bone marrow, lymphoid tissue and cardiac myocytes (Goddard and Leisewitz, 2010) [4] . Despite the development and widespread administration of vaccines against the CPV-2 strains the disease remains a significant concern in Veterinary medicine (Mazzaferro, 2020) [9] . Then CPV-2 targets rapidly dividing cells results in damage to the intestinal epithelial crypts, leading to vomiting and haemorrhagic diarrhoea along with nutrient malabsorption and enteric bacterial translocation. The loss of gastrointestinal fluids, that rapidly progresses to hypovolemic shock (Decaro et al., 2020) [3] . Taking into account of widespread occurrence, the elevated morbidity and mortality rates associated with the disease this study was aimed to study the occurrence of parvo viral enteritis in dogs.

Materials and Methods

The dogs presented to Veterinary Clinical Complex, NTR Veterinary College from May 2024 to December 2024 were screened for canine parvovirus infection. Dogs presented with complaint of anorexia, foul-smelling diarrhoea, vomiting and dehydration suspected for canine parvovirus infection were further subjected to clinical examination, screening by using Bionote ® Rapid CPV Ag test kit to record the prevalence parvovirus enteritis.

Results and Discussion

A total of 3426 canine patients were presented to VCC, NTR College of veterinary science Gannavaram from May 2024 to December 2024, out of which total of 28 dogs was diagnosed with canine parvovirus infection by Bionote ® Rapid ICHC kits indicating a total of 0.69 percent affection.

The age wise distribution of CPV in the current investigation indicated a predominance in puppies aged 3-6 months (71.43%), followed by those under 3 months (21.43%) and 6-9 months (7.14%) aged dogs. The results documented in this study are align with the observations of Mosallanejabad et al.

(2008) and Panchasheel and Chawan (2024) [12] , who indicated a greater prevalence of CPV in the 3-6 months age group compared to the < 3 months age group, followed by the 6-12 month and > 12 months age groups. This could be due to propensity of CPV for mitotic intestinal cells, along with changes in gut flora during weaning, insufficient maternal antibody levels might increase the risk of CPV in dogs under three months of age (Nwoha, 2011) [10] . Among the breeds, the highest prevalence of CPV was seen in non-descript dogs (42.86%), followed by Labrador Retriever (17.86%), Great Dane (10.71%) and the lowest prevalence was found in German Shepherd, Doberman, Pomeranian, and Shih Tzu (7.14% each) breeds of dog. The findings of this study are in agreement with the observations of Rafiq et al.

(2019) [13] , who noted a greater frequency of CPV in Nondescript breeds, followed by Great Dane, German Shepherd, Dalmatian, Labrador, Spitz, and Doberman, in comparison to Lhasa Apso. On the contrary Sagar et al. (2008) noted that breeds including Labradors, German Shepherds and Spitz are at a heightened risk of parvoviral enteritis, whereas mongrels have less susceptibility. The disparity in occurrence across various breeds might be attributed to the population density of each breed, which fluctuates across different geographical regions (Archana et al., 2010) [1] . With reference to sex, the highest prevalence of CPV was recorded in male dogs (60.71%) compared to female dogs (39.29%). The results of this study are in association with the data of Bhawani et al. (2023) [2] and Panchasheel and Chawan (2024) [12] , who observed a greater prevalence of parvoviral infection in male dogs (54.38%) compared to the females (45.61%). This disparity in sex-specific incidence might be attributed to the predominance of male canines relative to females in the research region. Whereas, demonstrated that there is no significant link between CPV enteritis and sex, since the disease affects both males and females equally. Occurrence of canine parvovirus based on vaccination status in the present study revealed that among the affected dogs, majority were not vaccinated (82.14%), (10.72%) were irregularly vaccinated and two (7.14%) were regularly vaccinated. The results are in accordance with the observations of Ismail and Hanedan (2024) [5] , who noted a greater incidence of CPV in unvaccinated dogs (92.30%) than vaccinated dogs (50.00%) fallowed by inadequately vaccinated (31.30%). Conversely, Ogbu et al. (2021) [11] discovered no correlation in the prevalence of CPV between vaccinated (42.07%) and unvaccinated (48.08%) dogs. The prevalence of CPV in vaccinated dogs can be ascribed to maternal antibodies in puppies, inadequate immunizations, and suboptimal vaccination responses. The occurrence of CPV in vaccinated dogs might often come from vaccination failure caused by maternal antibody interference (Decaro et al., 2020) [3] .

Conclusion

The prevalence of CPV infection at the VCC, NTR C.V.Sc Gannavaram during the period May 2024 to December 2024 was 1.58 percent. The highest prevalence was observed in unvaccinated dogs aged 3-6 months of age. Among the breeds highest prevalence was recorded in non-descript dogs followed by Labrador retriever than other breeds of dogs, whereas sex wise prevalence was higher in male than females.

Hence, from the present study it was concluded that implementation of strict vaccination measures and adoption of stray dog population may be helpful in minimizing the prevalence and spread of the disease.

Conflict of Interest Not available

Financial Support

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