Detection of cysts and coproantigen of Giardia duodenalis in domestic cats in Lokoja, Nigeria
2025
Adeiza, AM | Nafarnda, WD | Enem, SI | Okoli, C | Godwin, E | Babatunde, RS
Giardia duodenalis is a zoonotic upper intestinal tract parasite of humans, domestic and wild animals worldwide, causing diarrhoea in their hosts. Giardiasis is transmitted directly from person to person, animal to animal zoonotic or indirectly through water or food. Diarrhoea accounts for 16% in Nigeria, a country rated as having one of the worst prevalences of diarrhoea in Sub-Saharan Africa. The occurrence of G. duodenalis in cats poses a significant clinical and public health threat to people. This study investigated the prevalence of Giardia duodenalis in domestic (companion) cats in Lokoja, the capital of Kogi State, north-central, Nigeria. Faecal samples of 140 domestic cats were collected between November 2022 and October 2023 and analyzed for Giardia cysts using centrifugation-flotation and Giardia antigen using an immunochromatography assay. The prevalence of Giardia cysts detected was 1.4% while Giardia antigen was detected in 5.0% of the stool of the cats. The prevalence of G. duodenalis antigen in Tom cats was 5.8% and 3.8% in Queen cats while 18.2% of cats with diarrheic stool tested positive compared to the 0.9% of cats that were non-diarrheic. Based on age, the prevalence of Giardia duodenalis antigen was highest (8.0%) in cats that were less than 6 months old, while cats that were sampled in January had a higher prevalence of G. duodenalis (5.6%) than those sampled in December. The result suggests an association between faecal consistency and the prevalence of Giardia duodenalis in cats (P = 0.001). This study has confirmed the presence of Giardia duodenalis antigen in domestic cats in Lokoja. The occurrence of Giardia duodenalis in cats is of clinical and public health significance.
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