Egysejtű élősködők ellen alkalmazható gyógyszerek az állatorvoslásban : Irodalmi összefoglaló

Abstract

Protozoa are unicellular parasites with high veterinary-medical importance, as they can cause mild to severe diseases with multiorgan involvement in pets, livestock and wild-living animals, some of them having zoonotic potential. They can be acquired through a fecal-oral route directly or with contaminated food or water. In addition, vector-borne protozoa are transmitted by blood-sucking arthropods. In recent decades, with the spread of serodiagnostic and molecular biological methods, the identification of species has become more effective, and this has also induced changes in the field of veterinary parasitology. Since then, the number of protozoa newly diagnosed in both farm and companion animals has increased in Hungary, including Neospora caninum, Besnoitia besnoiti, several Sarcocystis, Babesia and Theileria species, Leishmania infantum, Hepatozoon felis, Hepatozoon canis, Cytauxzoon europeaus and different trichomonads. Currently, no practical summary is available in Hungary on medicines that can be used to treat or to prevent infections caused by unicellular parasites. Thus, this review tries to fill this gap and includes the most important antiprotozoal drugs, their doses and the available products. Even though unicellular parasites can cause serious disease and their treatment is challenging, there are still a limited number of drugs available for clinical use. In addition, drug resistance is increasing in the case of antiprotozoal drugs, and effective vaccines have limited availability for veterinary use. Therefore, more emphasis should be placed on prevention, e.g., to decrease the chances of infection by vector-borne protozoa by using repellents or by reducing the number of blood-sucking arthropod vectors in the environment of pet and livestock animals.