Right now, U.S. veterinarians rely on three types of drugs to kill the hookworms, but the parasites appear to becoming resistant to all of them. Dog hookworms can also infect humans.

They use their hooklike mouths to latch onto an animal’s intestines, where they feast on tissue fluids and blood. Infected animals can experience dramatic weight loss, bloody stool, anemia and lethargy, among other issues.

Now they’ve become multiple-drug resistant, according to new research from the University of Georgia.

Right now, U.S. veterinarians rely on three types of drugs to kill the hookworms, but the parasites appear to becoming resistant to all of them. Researchers from the UGA College of Veterinary Medicine first reported this concerning development in 2019, and new research, published recently in the International Journal for Parasitology: Drugs and Drug Resistance, provides deeper insight into where the problem started and how bad it’s since become.

For the present study, the researchers focused on current and former racing greyhounds. Dog racetracks are particularly conducive to spreading the parasite due to the sandy ground of the facilities, an ideal breeding ground for hookworms. Because of the conditions, all the dogs are dewormed about every three to four weeks.

After analyzing fecal samples from greyhound adoption kennels, three veterinary practices that work with adoption groups and an active racing kennel, the researchers found the parasites were highly prevalent in the breed. Four out of every five greyhounds tested came up positive for hookworms. And the ones that tested negative are probably also infected, said Ray Kaplan, the study’s corresponding author and a former professor of veterinary parasitology at UGA. Hookworms can sometimes «hide» in tissues, where they won’t reproduce and shed eggs until the infection worsens and leaks into the dog’s intestines.

Story Source:
Materials provided by University of Georgia. Original written by Leigh Beeson. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.