Molecular and Cellular Biology of Helminth Parasites

~New Technologies, New Opportunities~

12-17 September 2008

Bratsera Hotel, Hydra, Greece

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

DEADLINE APRIL 30, 2008

Please read and follow instructions and guidelines.

• Prepare your abstract in a Microsoft Word document, single-spaced
• All text should be in Arial, 10-point font
• Title in bold, initial caps, lower case format (initial letters of trade names capitalized). Do not put a period at the end of the abstract title
• Authors and affiliations in regular, upper case format
• Size of abstract ~ up to 500 words
• EMAIL YOUR ABSTRACT TO dowling@vet.upenn.edu

SAMPLE ABSTRACT

Use of toltrazuril (BAYCOX^®) to treat Cystoisospora spp. infections in a SCID dog colony
T. J. NOLAN*¹, M. L. CASAL², P. O’DONNELL², R. MARCANTUNO¹, AND P. J. FELSBURG². ¹DEPARTMENT OF PATHOBIOLOGY AND ²DEPARTMENT OF CLINICAL STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA SCHOOL OF VETERINARY MEDICINE, PHILADELPHIA, PA.

Species of the genus Cystoisospora (syn. Isospora) can cause severe diarrhea in some infected dogs, especially dogs lacking immunity to the parasites.  The only FDA approved drug for treating the enteritis associated with coccidiosis in dogs is sulfadimethoxine.   However, this drug is a coccidiostat, and thus, elimination of the parasite depends on the immune response of the dog.  In our breeding colony of Severe Combined Immunodeficiency dogs (which lack B and T-Cell responses) treating coccidial infections with a coccidiostat has been problematic.  In addition, these dogs suffer from recurrent Giardia and Campylobactor infections which result in frequent bloody diarrhea and death if not treated appropriately.  We reasoned that treatment using a coccidiocidal drug would improve health and management of the SCID dogs. There have been several reports on the use of the coccidiocide toltrazuril in dogs for the treatment of Cystoisospora spp.  Therefore, we evaluated this drug for treatment of clinical coccidiosis in our colony.   Dogs identified as infected with C. canis, C. ohioensis or C. burrowsi were treated with one oral dose (20 mg/kg) of toltrazuril and fecal samples were examined by the zinc sulfate centrifugation technique for the next 3 to 5 days for the presence of oocysts.  Oocysts rapidly disappeared from the feces, with 67% of the dogs becoming negative by 2 days post-treatment.  No adverse effects were seen in any of the treated dogs and the overall health of the SCID colony improved after treatment with toltrazuril was begun.  Toltrazuril had no activity against Giardia.