Dogs and cats may carry rabies virus, even if vaccinated. The occupational health program provides prophylactic rabies vaccinations for anyone with contact with dogs, cats or other carnivores. The wound should be cleaned with soap and water as soon as possible. Pregnant women handling cats should discuss the health considerations of toxoplasmosis and other infectious diseases with their physician. The use of gloves or hand washing is preventative.
Mosquitos serve both as a carrier and a host vital to the life cycle.
In the southeastern United States, data suggests that all dogs over one year of age, with access to the outdoors and not on a program of heartworm prevention are infected. However, most heartworm infections of dogs in Georgia and Florida involve 8 or fewer nematodes per host. False negative results can be caused by laboratory error, host-related factors, size of the infection and heartworm immaturity and sex. Laboratory error is usually the consequence of failing to permit refrigerated reagents to reach room temperature. Diagnostic tests will not detect any infection that has existed for less than 6.5 months, because immature worms do not release sufficient antigenic proteoglycans into the circulation for cumulative levels in the circulation to exceed the diagnostic threshold.