Awareness and Attitude Regarding Roundworm Infection among Pet Owners of Punjab, India

Aims: To access the awareness and attitude regarding roundworm infection among pet owners of Punjab, India.

Study Design: A cross-sectional questionnaire-based survey was conducted.

Place and Duration of Study: The present study was conducted on randomly selected pet owners who visited Teaching Veterinary Clinical Complex, GADVAS University, Ludhiana for the treatment of their pets. These owners belonged to different districts of Punjab. The data was collected between August 1st, 2016 and January 31st, 2017.

Methodology: A total of 150 pet owners were interviewed with a questionnaire. The respondents were presented with a questionnaire of 20 questions containing both open and close ended questions designed to obtain information on different aspects of roundworm dis­eases, i.e., awareness, knowledge, risks, etc.

Results: The results demonstrated that the very small proportion of pet owners (<35%) knew about the roundworm infection. Only forty four respondents (29.3%) reported that they knew this disease can spread from infected animal to a healthy animal and only 20% pet owners were aware of the zoonotic aspect of the disease as they knew the disease can spread from infected animals to healthy humans. More than 70% respondents indicated that veterinarians never discussed the potential hazards of zoonoses. The major proportion of pet owners had very poor knowledge, attitudes and practices in relation to roundworm infection.

Conclusion: It can be concluded that the pet owners do not have even a fair knowledge on parasitic helminths and are seriously unaware about risks and various preventive measures against roundworms.The study highlights that one of the major strategies in prevention and control of roundworms is to improve the information about knowledge, attitude and practices in this area. The extension agencies and veterinarians need to focus their attention towards providing information to pet owners on parasitic infections.