Where dose heartworm disease come from?
The first documentation of heartworm was in 1874. It was in the Western Journal of Medicine and the article was written about a canine. It wasn’t until the early 1900’s the first documentation was written on a feline. These worms have been around for a long time. No one knows for sure where they evolved originally. Both dogs and cats are susceptible to being infected. But for some reason, cats are less susceptible to heartworm harboring mosquito. As people acquired more pets especially dogs, the disease has accelerated. As pet owners started traveling more with pets, heartworm disease has spread. The pet was taken into an infected area and thus becoming infected themselves. The worm was brought back home to an area that was at the time not infested with heartworm. Heartworm disease has now been diagnosed in all 50 states in the USA as well as worldwide. Cats as of yet have not been found to be big factors in spreading the disease. Unfortunately this could change as we learn more about
