A Veterinary Clinic-Based Cross-Sectional Study on the Prevalence of Dog Diseases in Cagayan, Philippines

Abstract

Dogs, the most common companion animal of humans, perform not only the auxiliary of an individual, but also contribute to the nations’ crime and defense departments. Knowing the determinant-based disease status of dogs is imperative to keep them healthy by subsequent prevention and control of those diseases, however, such baseline epidemiological information is limited. Therefore, a cross-sectional study was conducted to determine the proportional prevalence of dog diseases and their distribution according to month (May, June, July), age, breed and sex. Purposively, data of 630 dog cases of different type of diseases were collected from the record book of 11 Veterinary Clinics. The proportional prevalence was calculated as the proportion of cases of a specific disease among total number of cases of all types of diseases attended the 11 Veterinary Clinics during the study period. Diseases of dog were categorized into infectious, non-infectious, and non-specific. Results showed that the highest proportional prevalence was noted in infectious diseases (76.9%) followed by non-infectious diseases (11.5%) and the lowest in non-specific (11.4%) cases. Among them, disease- specific proportional prevalence was remarkable in case of parvovirus (28.7%), Ehrlichiosis (20.1%), helminthiasis (6.0%), laceration (5.8%), and demodicosis (3.8%). The occurrence of demodicosis varied significantly (P < 0.05) among all studied determinants (age, sex, breed, and month). The proportional prevalence of other diseases also varied significantly (P < 0.05) amongst either one or two studied determinants. This study provides a valuable insight about important diseases in dogs, which may serve as useful baseline information for disease prioritization and subsequent planning of effective control and implementation of the one-health approach which is beneficial for human and animal as well as the environmental health.