Feral dogs and their impact on the environment
Review
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31533/pubvet.v18n09e1652Keywords:
Cães errantes, cães ferais, cães selvagens, cães vadios, patógenos, zoonosesAbstract
A feral dog is an animal that was domestic and began to live in a wild environment, either due to abandonment or escape. They have no food, water or veterinary care providers. In this way, they recover their wild instincts, depending on their own hunting and survival, which causes an impact on the environment, thus affecting animal and human health. The objective of this study was to review the impacts of wild dogs on environmental health and humans. The present work refers to a bibliographical review survey and analysis of works researched electronically through online databases. Veterinary medicine literature works in English and Portuguese, published between 1975 to 2023, were selected. Because they are large predators in nature, feral dogs have an impact on wildlife. They cause physical and temporal displacement, disturbance and response to stress in the fauna, harming the lives of the animals that live there, reducing the amount of functionally available environment that offers them food, reproduction and rest, in addition to water contamination and mortality of other species, whether direct (predation) or indirect (transmission of pathogens). These dogs compete for the same environment as those that live there, so animal activity decreases to avoid contact with dogs. They can participate in the transmission of various pathogens to humans and wild animals, such as giardiasis, distemper, parvovirus, leishmaniasis, toxoplasmosis, scabies, and they are a reservoir for rabies. They can cause accidents due to bites and risk hybridization with other species. The impacts of feral dogs should be better discussed and studied, and management strategies must be created, including programs to prevent the species from breeding in an unregulated manner. Preventive measures must be taken to avoid a greater impact in the future.
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