How common is hookworms in humans in the usa

One possible breeding ground for a potential drug-resistant hookworm outbreak is also the place many dog owners use to exercise their animals: dog parks. But as those dogs are adopted, the drug-resistant hookworms are going to show up in other pet dogs.' 'There's a very committed greyhound adoption industry because they are lovely dogs,' said Kaplan. Although a molecular test does not yet exist to test for the resistance to the other two types of drugs, other types of testing by the team showed that the hookworms were resistant to those drugs as well. The researchers found that almost all the fecal samples tested positive for the mutation that enables hookworms to survive treatment with benzimidazoles, a broad-spectrum class of dewormers used in both animals and humans. 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.Д¬ompounding the problem, veterinarians don't typically test animals after treatment to ensure the worms are gone, so the drug-resistant worms go unnoticed until the dog has a heavy infection and starts showing signs of hookworm disease. 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. Four out of every five greyhounds tested came up positive for hookworms. Because of the conditions, all the dogs are dewormed about every three to four weeks.ДЄfter 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. Dog racetracks are particularly conducive to spreading the parasite due to the sandy ground of the facilities, an ideal breeding ground for hookworms. 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.ДЇor the present study, the researchers focused on current and former racing greyhounds. veterinarians rely on three types of drugs to kill the hookworms, but the parasites appear to becoming resistant to all of them. Now they've become multiple-drug resistant, according to new research from the University of Georgia. Infected animals can experience dramatic weight loss, bloody stool, anemia and lethargy, among other issues. They use their hooklike mouths to latch onto an animal's intestines, where they feast on tissue fluids and blood.

How common is hookworms in humans in the usa