Biotherapeutic potential of dairy beverage supplemented with lactobacillus casei shirota for the control of canine hookworm

Abstract

Domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) are present in the homes of several families around the world, and are one of the animals with greater contact with humans, either as a guard dog or just as a pet. With this, they can transmit parasites to their owners, since dogs are natural hosts of several parasites, among them the helminths of Ancylostomidae family. Ancylostomiasis presents as main symptoms abdominal pain and anemia. The treatment is performed with anthelmintics, however, it was found that these parasites are acquiring resistance to current drugs, which makes necessary the development of alternative therapies. Thus, this study aims to evaluate the therapeutic effect of a probiotic preparation containing 1x10¹⁰ CFU of Lactobacillus casei Shirota, administering 80 mL of this, for a group of four naturally infected dogs during 40 alternate days and, in parallel, administering a same volume during 30 consecutive days for a similar group of dogs. The protective effect was also evaluated by administering 80 ml of the preparation for a group of 5 healthy dogs for 30 consecutive days, which were maintained along with other infected animals. The number of eggs per gram of feces (EPG) was determined every 7 days, noting possible changes. As results, it was observed the potential use of probiotics in the treatment of hookworm in dogs as an inexpensive alternative therapy, since the assessed preparation induced significant reduction of the parasitic load of infected animals (p <0.005) in comparison with the control group, but in the other hand it was not observed protective effect, since the parasitosis have established in the dogs which were pretreated with L. casei Shirota.