Prevalence of Enteropathogens in Dogs Attending 3 Regional Dog Parks in Northern California

Hascall, K.L.; Kass, P.H.; Saksen, J.; Ahlmann, A.; Scorza, A.V.; Lappin, M.R.; Marks, S.L.

The frequency of detection of Giardia spp. via fecal flotation was significantly different between the university and commercial reference laboratories (P = .013). The university laboratory detected 13 additional positive samples that the commercial reference laboratory did not detect, whereas the commercial reference laboratory detected 3 positive samples that the university laboratory did not detect (Table S1 ). In addition, 11/27 dogs (41%) that had Giardia cysts detected via fecal flotation, DFA, or both were negative on PCR. Five of the 11 dogs (46%) that were infected with Giardia and that were negative on PCR were positive on both flotation and DFA. Significant differences were also found when DFA results were compared to the commercial laboratory fecal flotation (P = .0016) and to PCR results (P = .014).