INTESTINAL NEMATODES IN DOGS AND CATS IN BANJA LUKA, REPUBLIKA SRPSKA

: Some intestinal nematodes of dogs and cats show zoonotic potential, and therefore they are of public-health significance. In the territory of the city of Banja Luka, 149 samples were examined (131 of dogs and 18 cats), with 40 samples of dog feces collected from two public areas in the city. Parasitological examination (saturated zinc sulfate floatation and determination of larvae and adult parasites in feces) resulted in the following data: Toxocara canis (9.16%), Ancylostomatidae (5.34%), Trichuris vulpis (7.63%), Toxascaris leonina (1.52%), Toxocara cati (33.3%), Trichuris spp . (5.5%) and Hydatigera taeniaeformis (5.5%). On the basis of the obtained results we can conclude that the intestinal nematodes are more widespread than is generally assumed and therefore represent a health problem for dogs and cats in the territory of Banja Luka.


2017a and 2017b).
There is no available data on the frequency of human infections with these nematodes in the area of Banja Luka and / or Republika Srpska.

Sampling
In the period from 01.01.2016 to 21.07.2018.a total of 149 fecal samples of dogs and cats were collected.Samples were divided into two groups: 1. samples of feces and parasitic elements from owned dogs and cats (109); 2. fecal samples from dogs collected from green, public areas in the territory of Banja Luka (40).Fecal samples from green, public areas were collected in two parks on the territory of the city: city park "Mladen Stojanović" and "park for dogs" (Figure 1).

Coprological exemination
Caprological examination of fecal samples was carried out in two laboratories in the territory of Banja Luka: Laboratory for Microbiology at the Medical Faculty in Banja Luka and "in-house" laboratory of the Veterinary Ambulance "BL vet" Banja Luka.First, the feces was macroscopically examined for parasitic elements: tapeworm proglottids, larvae, parts and / or adults.In case of macroscopically

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visible parasitic elements, they are washed in water or physiological saline.Based on general morphology and size, smaller nematodes were processed into Aman's lactophenol and observed under a light microscope, on the basis of which the genus and / or species was identified.The nematodes were washed in 0.9% saline solution, observed under a stereomicroscope, cleared in a solution of phenol alcohol (80%) until morphological characters sufficient for a diagnosis of the species were detected (Monnig, 1950).Cestodes were observed natively, scolex was cut off with scissors and placed on a slide after which a cover slip was carefully pressed with several drops of Aman's lactophenol.Microscopy of the cestodes was carried out after 2 hours.After macroscopic examination, fecal samples were examined using saturated zinc sulfate solution floatation technique (1.30-1.40).Minimum 3 grams of feces was homogenized with 40-50 ml of flotation liquid, filtered into a pure plastic glass and the sample was transferred to two 15 ml tubes, on top of which there were cover glasses.After 20 minutes of flotation, the cover glass was carefully shifted to the cover slip and examined microscopically at a magnification of 10x.Coprological diagnosis was based on the structure and size of the concentrated parasitic elements: eggs and larvae (Monnig, 1950) (Fig. 2).

Figure 1 . 1 :
Figure 1.1: Public green areas where feces samples were collected (Legend: A-park Mladen Stojanović, B-park for dogs)

Veterinary Journal of Republic of Srpska (Banja Luka), Vol. XIX, No.1, 167-172, 2019 Stevanović еt al: Intestinal nematodes in dogs and cats in Banja Luka, Republika Srpska
the city.However, regular coprological control remains an imperative, because only in this way can parasitic diseases be diagnosed regularly(Kulisic et al 1998).On the other hand, a relatively high number of positive samples were obtained in the laboratory of the Veterinary Ambulance "BL-vet" Banja Luka, which leads to the conclusion that the dehelmintisation protocols should always be controlled by coprological examination.In the literature, there are few data on cats as sources of contamination with these nematodes in urban areas.Dogs are generally regarded as the main source(Nijsse et al., 2015).However, the prevalence of 33.3% of cats' fecal contamination with Toxocara eggs opens the question of the role of cats in the process of contamination of public areas in Banja Luka.Considering the habits of cats, accessibility to all areas, and unhindered access to dormitories, playgrounds and sand playgrounds, unlike dogs who are physically disabled to enter most of these places, it is quite clear that cats can represent a significantly greater source of infection for children, who are more likely to develop a broad clinical symptomatology(Carvalho, 2011).There are more medical studies that discuss about the importance of human toxocariasis as well as clarification of the role played by other parasites from this group in a man as a random host.Studies showing seroprevalence among people ranging from 2% to 37%(Magnaval et al  2001)clearly indicate the importance of these parasitic diseases in the field of public health, as well as the necessary multidisciplinary cooperation between experts in human and veterinary medicine (Colovic-Calovski et al 2014).The obtained results indicate that it is necessary to continue the regular control of public surfaces at the level of contamination with parasitic elements and to determine the seroprevalence of toxocariasis in humans in the territory of Banjaluka.