Dipylidium caninum in the twenty-first century: epidemiological studies and reported cases in companion animals and humans.

Background: Dipilidiosis is a parasitic disease caused by the tapeworm Dipylidium caninum. Fleas and, less frequently, lice act as an intermediate host, and their ingestion is required for infection to occur. While the disease mainly affects domestic and wild carnivores, it is also considered a zoonotic disease, with most human cases reported in children.

Non-Invasive Molecular Survey of Sarcoptic Mange in Wildlife: Diagnostic Performance in Wolf Faecal Samples Evaluated by Multi-Event Capture-Recapture Models.

Sarcoptic mange is globally enzootic, and non-invasive methods with high diagnostic specificity for its surveillance in wildlife are lacking. We describe the molecular detection of in non-invasively collected faecal samples, targeting the 16S rDNA gene. We applied this method to 843 Iberian wolf faecal samples collected in north-western Portugal (2006-2018).