Dirofilaria immitis

D. immitis View in CoL

Overall, 25 out of 1221 blood samples (2.0%) were positive for D. immitis ( Table 2). Te DNA sequences from the 25 positive samples revealed similarity (97–100%) with the available DNA sequences of D. immitis at NCBI GenBank (Supplementary File 2). Te high-quality sequences obtained were submitted to the GenBank international database under the accession number (PQ044876-PQ044877, Q> 20 value higher then 90; Supplementary File 3).

Te prevalence of heartworm in domestic dogs by island was as follows: Isabela 2.4%, Floreana 0%, Santa Cruz 0%, and San Cristóbal 3.3% ( Figs. 2 View Fig and 3 View Fig ). Te sample analysis revealed that 19 of the examined dogs tested positive (1.6%) using mPCR. Out of these, 14 dogs also showed positive results (1.2%) when their cox1 gene sequences were analyzed. Tese sequences were found to be 97–100% similar to different sequences of D. immitis in the GenBank sequence database. Furthermore, we confirmed the presence of this species by amplifying and analyzing the 5.8S-ITS2-28S rDNA gene fragment.

Te cox1 gene filarial nematodes test showed greater sensitivity than the Knott’s test, while the Knott’s test showed greater specificity than the cox1 gene filarial nematodes test ( Table 3).

However, when applying a GLM, no significant relationship was found between variables examined and positivity. Te influence of the variables housing, island, and sex could not be related to the presence of D. immitis (Supplementary File 4).