After World War II, Albania was the smallest and became the most isolated country within
the former communist bloc of Eastern Europe (principles of ‘self-reliance’ were sanctioned in
1976) with a highly centralized type of economy. Despite of considerable success with the
industrialization of the country in the late 1970s, Albania’s economy was still strongly
dependent on agriculture. Internal migration was strictly regulated and urbanization was
planned and, because of focussing on agriculture, Albania remained predominately rural and
maintained the lowest level of urbanization in Europe with approximately two thirds of the
total population living in rural areas in 1989. Mainly because of the self-isolation, Albania’s
economy was brought to a state of total collapse in 1990 and lead subsequently to major
changes in the political and economic structures (Gjonça 2001).
The transition from a closed, centralized economy to an open-market, democratic country was
accompanied by significant demographic, social and cultural changes including urbanization
and modernization (Vullnetari 2012). One aspect associated to these processes is a change in
the attitude of humans to dogs and cats such that companion animal ownership is becoming
more and more popular in Albania, particularly in cities.
In the past, both dogs and cats did not receive much attention and had no high social support
in the country. Based on the importance of agriculture, health care for food animals took an
important role while canine and feline diseases were rather undocumented in Albania. This
included the knowledge of the parasitological status of dogs and cats. Until 1990, only scarce
information was available on parasites of dogs and cats in the country with only one paper
from 1960 specifically dedicated to helminth parasites of dogs and cats. From the late 1990s
on, a more comprehensive picture on parasitic infections in dogs and cats including vectorborne
pathogens has been established through studying mainly less well-cared-for dogs and
cats that roam continuously or sporadically. Although surveying of this category of animals
provides very important information on the distribution of parasitic infections and their
potential public health implications, the dissemination of parasites and vector-borne
pathogens in client-owned, veterinary-cared-for dogs have not been studied to date.
Therefore, the aim of this thesis was to determine the prevalence of endo and ectoparasite
infections including vector-borne disease agents in dogs presented to four small animal clinics
in Tirana in order to provide specific knowledge on the situation in companion animals in
Albania.