Evolving parasitic diagnostics in veterinary medicine
How have these diagnostics changed, and how are they the same?
During an interview with dvm360, Lindsay Starkey, DVM, PhD, DACVM (Parasitology), a veterinary parasitologist at Oklahoma State University, shared some ways that the approach to parasite prevention has evolved, and how it has stayed the same. Throughout the interview Starkey broke down the different strategies and diagnostic tools that are now available to veterinary teams and pet owners, such as artificial intelligence and combined products to improve compliance as a way to keep pets safe from parasites.
Below is a partial transcript, edited lightly for clarity
Lindsay Starkey, DVM, PhD, DACVM (Parasitology): How has that approach evolved? I don't know that the approach to control has necessarily evolved all that much. We're still relying on predominantly the same drugs and drug classes to treat our parasitic infections of small animals, but diagnostics has definitely evolved, overarching management strategies as far as trying to mitigate risks and deal with things in the environment that has kind of evolved over the past decade, and we're now getting products on the market that have combined forces, if you will. And so trying to bring together this aspect of parasite control with this aspect of parasite control in this kind of all in one package, and I think that can really help our owners better protect their animals when they can just buy one thing, understand what that one thing actually can do, and if they give it correctly.
So we've got some great new options that help us identify parasites, just in general, like knowing that they're there, or kind of narrowing down exactly what they are and making sure that identification and that diagnosis is as accurate as possible. And so we've got reference laboratories that have some techniques that are highly sensitive, like PCR, that can detect a whole number of things at a very low level. The fecal sample also can help detect things that just routine parasitology diagnostics kind of struggle with, especially in the clinic.
