First report of Ancylostoma ceylanicum in wild canids

• First report of Ancylostoma ceylanicum in wild canids.
• Ancylostoma ceylanicum, A. caninum and A. braziliense are prevalent in wild dogs in the Wet Tropics of Australia.
• A zoonotic risk exists from the reservoir of hookworms in wild dogs to communities in the Wet Tropics.

The parasitic nematode Ancylostoma ceylanicum is common in dogs, cats and humans throughout Asia, inhabiting the small intestine and possibly leading to iron-deficient anaemia in those infected. It has previously been discovered in domestic dogs in Australia and this is the first report of A. ceylanicum in wild canids. Wild dogs (dingoes and dingo hybrids) killed in council control operations (n = 26) and wild dog scats (n = 89) were collected from the Wet Tropics region around Cairns, Far North Queensland. All of the carcasses (100%) were infected with Ancylostoma caninum and three (11.5%) had dual infections with A. ceylanicum. Scats, positively sequenced for hookworm, contained A. ceylanicum, A. caninum and Ancylostoma braziliense, with A. ceylanicum the dominant species in Mount Windsor National Park, with a prevalence of 100%, but decreasing to 68% and 30.8% in scats collected from northern and southern rural suburbs of Cairns, respectively. Due to the ability of A. ceylanicum to cause a patent infection in humans, the zoonotic risk arising from this wild dog reservoir to communities in the Wet Tropics should be determined.

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