A two-year-old male ferret (Mustela putorius furo) was presented to the Faculty of Veterinary Science, Szent István University, for investigation of somnolence. Following unsuccessful therapeutic attempts, the ferret was euthanased and a male Dirofilaria immitis worm was found in the pulmonary artery and a female D. immitis specimen in the subdural space of the cranial cavity. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first European record of D. immitis infection in a ferret, and the first case in which aberrant larval migration and consequent central nervous system signs were observed in a ferret in the course of D. immitis infection.

In order to assess the seroprevalence of canine neosporosis 651 blood samples were collected from 586 household, 41 herding and 24 stray dogs, at small animal clinics in four large cities and other places of Hungary. Nineteen (2.9%) showed positivity in the IFAT with titres between 1:80 and 1:10240. Two dogs with high titres of antibodies to Neospora caninum had neuromuscular signs (imbalance, tremor) and a further one developed papulomatous, ulcerative and necrotizing dermatitis. There was no correlation between titers and age, sex, breed or keeping place. Although more male dogs had antibodies to N. caninum than females in case of both household and herding dogs, this association was not significant. No breed predisposition was observed. However, dogs with seroconversion were significantly more prevalent among rural (6%) than among urban dogs (1%), indicating that dogs in the countryside may have contact with or access to potentially infected offal from cattle and other intermediate hosts more frequently than those in large cities. Furthermore, significantly more herding dogs (29.3%) had antibodies to N. caninum than household dogs (1.2%), confirming the association between the occurrence of neosporosis and dog keeping on farms. The 12 dogs found seropositive among herding ones lived on 6 farms, on 5 of which seropositive cattle were also identified. This is the first report on the prevalence of N. caninum infection in dogs in Hungary.

Objective: To report the case of a 65-year-old male patient from western Hungary who presented with rapidly progressive peripheral visual field (VF) loss and the sensation of an actively moving object in his central VF Design: Interventional case report.Method/Intervention: A live nematode was removed from the anterior vitreous cavity by pars plana vitrectomy.Results: The worm was successfully removed surgically, and the patient had an uneventful recovery. The nematode was identified as an immature filaria, most likely a member of the genus Onchocerca.Conclusions: Only 3 previous reports exist of human infection of the eye caused by zoonotic Onchocerca, 2 involving the subconjunctiva and 1 the cornea. Although rare, zoonotic onchocercal infection of the eye must be considered a differential diagnostic entity even in temperate climates. (C) 2005 by the American Academy of Ophthalmology.

The authors conducted survey to assess whether current veterinary practices concerning prophylaxis of helminthozoonoses caused by canine and feline intestinal worms are adequate to prevent the potential public health risks. They administered a standard questionnaire by mail to 20 provincial veterinarians in 1997, and two years later to 126 small animal practitioners, among them 95 worked in the capital and 31 worked in the country. Data collected from the 146 veterinarians included the year of graduation, practice (companion/mixed, animal keeping conditions), possibility to make faeces parasitology test, experience about that the owners whether meet the additional charges for the faeces tests, anthelmintic strategy in dogs and cats (age of the first deworming puppies and kittens, interval, suggestion of the repetition, routine deworming adult animals), whether the owners bring back their pets for the repetition of the treatment as the veterinarian suggested, if not, what are its causes, whether the anthelmintics' prices influence the owners' decision to deworm their pets, drugs that the practitioners regularly use for dogs and cats, the public health aspects (zoonotic risks, estimated infection rate of puppies and kittens with roundworms, estimated infection risk of children in direct contact with the young animals, experience concerning the owners' awareness of intestinal worms of their animals), the need of informing pet owners about the helminthozoonoses risks, and the explanatory work of the veterinarians to Inform the owners about the helminthozoonoses, According to the veterinarians, pet-owners know almost nothing about helminthozoonoses, From the veterinarians 71.9% answered that they had met in their praxis cases when the owners were treated by the general practitioner because of a suspicion of being infected by their pet's worms. According to the survey conducted in 1998, from the veterinarians 88.9% treated the animals routinely, but only 3.2% perform faecal examination in sprite of that 90.5% have the possibility to do this. In the opinion of the veterinarians the anthelmintics' prices frequently influence the owners' decision to deworm their pets, According to the experiencies of 57.9% of the practitioners the owners do not meet the additional charges for the faeces tests. According to the data only 52.1% and 34.2% of the veterinarians estimated more than 50% the infestation rate in young dogs and cats with roundworms, The estimated risk of Toxocara Infection from direct contact between children and young dogs and cats according to the 48.6% of the veterinarians is between 10 to 49%, despite the fact that the direct contact does not create high risk for zoonotic Infection, because roundworm eggs need maturation in the environment, so answers between 0 to 9% were acceptable. From the practitioners 26.0% recommend incorrectly the first deworming at 4-7 weeks of age of pups, The first correct deworming (between 4-7 weeks of age) of kittens was answered by only 43.2% of the veterinarians. From the practitioners 75% answered that the veterinarians' information work Is not satisfactory. The authors offer the following schedule for deworming: puppies should be dewormed every two weeks from 2 to 12 weeks of age and kittens from 4 to 12 weeks of age. Nursing bitches and queens should be treated concurrently with their puppies and kittens. Moreover they offer the quarterly treatment of adult animals, too. Organizing the fight against helminthozoonoses such as toxocarosis Is mainly veterinary task, however, its control is of common veterinary and medical interest. The veterinarians have many possibilities both in the surgery and outside to inform the population about the helminthozoonotic risks. Moreover, In the authors' opinion the culture of pet animal keeping needs more improvements in Hungary.

The authors give a review mainly about that worm species of the endoparasites of dogs and cats which are more frequently dangerous for the people living in urban circumstances because of the dissemination faeces of these animals. The life cycle of the nematode Toxocara species in dogs and cats as the final hosts, in inadequate++ hosts like man and the consequences of the zoonoses caused by these worms are briefly discussed. The authors survey the epidemiology, clinical appearances and the prevalence of human infections according to the data of the Hungarian and foreign literature. The clinical symptoms and the danger of this parasitosis running with the increasing number of the pet animals are pointed out. It is emphasized that the wide-range explanatory work and the role of the owners of pets in the decrease of the risks are very important, moreover that organizing the struggle against zoonoses such as toxocarosis is mainly veterinary task, however, its control is common medical and veterinary interest. The recognition, identification, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of human infections can only be effective with the proper knowledge in this zoonosis. Toxocarosis is one of the most frequent helminthozoonoses of townspeople in Hungary.