Theoretical and Natural Science
- The Open Access Proceedings Series for Conferences
Theoretical and Natural Science
Vol. 35, 26 April 2024
Open
Access | Article
Heartworm disease in canines
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Heartworm disease is a parasitic disease caused by Dirofilaria immitis that affects the pulmonary arteries in canines, causing circulatory disturbances and breathing difficulties. The disease is transmitted through mosquito bites and the worms mature in the heart, lungs, and associated blood vessels of canines. Wolbachia, an endosymbiont bacteria present in D. immitis, triggers the canine immune response leading to acute and chronic inflammation in the heart and lung vasculature. The primary lesions in pulmonary arteries and lung parenchyma, along with the proliferation of the worms, result in severe pulmonary hypertension and congestive heart failure if left untreated. Though dogs of any age, breed, or sex may be affected, the disease is rare in dogs less than one year of age due to the time required for larval maturation into adult heartworms.
Keywords
Heartworm, Dirofilaria immitis, pulmonary
References
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Data Availability
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.
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- Volume Title
- Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Modern Medicine and Global Health
- ISBN (Print)
- 978-1-83558-395-1
- ISBN (Online)
- 978-1-83558-396-8
- Published Date
- 26 April 2024
- Series
- Theoretical and Natural Science
- ISSN (Print)
- 2753-8818
- ISSN (Online)
- 2753-8826
- DOI
- 10.54254/2753-8818/35/20240887
- Copyright
- 26 April 2024
- Open Access
- This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited