Ancylostoma species

Mackenstedt, Ute, Jenkins, David & Romig, Thomas, 2015, The role of wildlife in the transmission of parasitic zoonoses in peri-urban and urban areas, International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife 4 (1), pp. 71-79 : 75-76

4.3. Ancylostoma species and Uncinaria stenocephala

Human infection with hookworm species commonly causes cutaneous larval migrans, with painful, itchy eruptions along the path of migrating larvae. Lesions occur most commonly in the skin on the feet, legs, buttocks and hands, but lesions can occur anywhere on the body. Lesions from A. braziliense and U. stenocephala may persist for many weeks to a year before the larvae die, while lesions caused by A. caninum are small and transient ( Stevenson and Hughes, 1988). Complications may be secondary bacterial infection following scratching lesions with dirty hands. A. caninum has also been implicated in causing eosinoplilic enteritis in humans. Until the cause of this eosinophilic enteritis was revealed, patients had large sections of intestine resected ( Prociv and Croese, 1996).

The prevalences of hookworm infections in wild dogs and foxes from peri-urban and urban environments are high ( Table 1). U. stenocephala is a cold adapted species and is found almost exclusively in domestic and wild dogs and foxes inhabiting the cooler areas of southeastern Australia, especially areas associated with the Great Dividing Range where cold winters with severe frosts occur ( Wilson, 1994; Palmer et al., 2007). Whereas A. caninum occurs along the warmer coastal fringe of eastern Australia, becoming more widespread in the damper, warmer areas of tropical Australia ( Palmer et al., 2007). A ceylanicum and A. braziliense also occur mainly in more tropical areas ( Palmer et al., 2007). A. ceylanicum is able to cause patent enteric infection in humans and patent infections have been identified in dingoes in the Cairns district in Queensland ( Smout et al., 2013).