Dirofilariasis is a mosquito-borne disease caused by Dirofilaria parasites, affecting both wild and domestic animals, including humans considered as accidental hosts. Dirofilaria repens is the principal causative agent of dirofilariasis in the Old World, with increasing reports of the parasite in countries where it has not been previously identified, due to several factors such as the expansion of mosquito vectors' geographical distribution. By utilizing newly designed primers for molecular detection and confirming through next-generation sequencing, here, we report the first plausible cases of D. repens in dogs from Colombia. Our results support the classification of this species as an emergent pathogen in the Americas. Finally, we encourage an increase in diagnostic and surveillance efforts to prevent and control the current and future dirofilariasis cases in this region.
Keywords: 18S ribosomal RNA; Canis lupus familiaris; Cytochrome Oxidase I; Oxford Nanopore Technology; Sanger; Santander-Colombia.
© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.