Copyright © 2011 by The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

Zoonotic filarioids are transmitted at larval stage by blood-sucking insects from infected animals to humans. 1 Among sev-eral species of filarial worms, human infections are mostly caused by nematodes belonging to the genus Dirofilaria (Spirurida, Onchocercidae), which are located predominantly in the subcutaneous tissues and pulmonary vessels, but also in central nervous system, and cause a range of clinical manifes-tations from asymptomatic to more severe (e.g., cough, chest pains, eosinophilia, and hemoptysis). 2 Although Dirofilaria immitis, the agent of cardio-pulmonary disease in dogs is con-sidered with the filarioid of raccoons ( Dirofilaria tenuis) the main agent of human dirofilariasis in the Americas, 3 Dirofilaria repens, which is usually found in the subcutaneous tissue of dogs, is the main causative agent of human dirofilariasis in the Old Word. 4 In most human cases of ocular dirofilariasis cause