First autochthonous case of canine Angiostrongylus vasorum in Slovakia

Angiostrongylus vasorum is a metastrongyloid nematode that may cause cardiopulmonary disease, neurological signs and coagulopathies in dogs. The parasite has an indirect life cycle with molluscs as intermediate hosts, in which the infective third larval stage develops. Recently, A. vasorum has been repeatedly reported in dogs outside the endemic areas, indicating that this parasite is widely distributed over Europe. This is the first record of an autochthonous infection in a dog from Slovakia that was casually diagnosed during routine preventive parasitological examination. A. vasorum first-stage larvae were recovered using the Baermann technique and identified by length and characteristic tail morphology. The animal originated from Slovakia and had not travelled abroad. The dog had been regularly walked on grass fields with a concentrated presence of common species of Gastropoda and frogs. The owner reported that the dog had been licking and eating grass and it had shown curiosity for molluscs and frogs. The first finding of A. vasorum-infected dog in Slovakia has confirmed that the parasite is spreading beyond the traditional hyperendemic foci, which accentuates the need for monitoring and increasing of disease awareness in primary care clinical practice.