Pertinent Animal Health
Industry: Treatment for canine hookworm
The canine hookworm Ancylostoma caninum is the most prevalent and damaging intestinal parasite of dogs in the U.S. It causes anemia and enteritis, and it can be passed to humans. Current treatment methods are becoming less effective as multi-drug resistant strains of hookworm begin to circulate in larger numbers.
Pertinent Animal Health Inc. is working on a two-pronged project to address this problem. The first is the exploration of a variety of different plant-based ingredients for the ability to kill drug-resistant parasites. The second is an accompanying diagnostic test, performed in-clinic with results in under an hour, which identifies hookworm in feces and, critically, determines drug-resistant mutations in hookworm DNA.
A previous study found that certain plant-based ingredients were highly effective at reducing hookworms in pigs. Further testing will lead Pertinent Animal Health toward the development of a capsule of combined ingredients to be tested on rodents in phase 1B. The diagnostic test constitutes a large advancement over existing hookworm tests in both its speed and its awareness of mutated resistances.
It is expected these products will be sold to veterinary clinics and then billed to pet owners. There is also a potential market selling directly to farmers once the technology is scaled to larger animals, depending on registration pathway, distribution chain and size of farm.
