Dogs, cats, mammals and other wild animals---these are the favorite hosts of parasitic roundworms. They mature inside the right side of the heart eventually damaging it and slowly lessening the efficiency of the lungs as well as the other vital organs of the body such as liver because of the effects that it yearns. Heartworm is the disease that stirs alertness and caused alarm to the health condition of wild animals especially those situated in US, Canada, Alaska, and Atlantic and along the Gulf Coast and Mississippi River Valley.

Dirofilaria Immitis or heartworm disease could cause inflammation of the pulmonary artery because of the long-term irritation of adult worms living in the right side of the heart and passing to and fro the pulmonary artery. Heartworm disease causes back pressure to the lungs as the smaller blood vessels’ opening may be blocked because of the blood clot formations due similarly to the irritation caused by matured worms that thickens and roughens the artery. This inflammation is said to be one of the most common pathological processes observed due to heartworm disease. Back pressure is not just damaging the vital organs, the effect of this is irreversible and serious that to an animal host, could lead to death because of the body system’s dysfunction.

Only one method has been proven best to investigate if a host is a carrier of heartworm disease and that is through finding microfilariae in the blood of a living host. Microfilariae are the baby worms of the female adult worms. Compared to male worms, female worms are longer which are said to be 10 inches long. These female worms give birth inside the host’s body and since the baby worms called microfilariae are microscopic in size, they could easily swim through the blood that circulates the whole body of its host. Mosquitoes, however, are the carriers of these worms to another animal’s or host’s body. When a mosquito sucks in blood from an infected host, the mosquito ingests the microfilariae to its body that will grow and become larvae that will stay in the mosquito’s mouth and will eventually leave when the mosquito feeds on another animal. The microfilariae will enter the skin and the muscles and from there they will enter the right side of the heart of their host and stay there until they become adult worms. However, according to studies, the answer as to how these larvae go to the right side of the heart is still yet to be solved.

Meanwhile, X-ray detection may also be effective in spotting heartworm disease infection. Furthermore, a dead animal’s pulmonary artery and vena cava may likewise be examined since the worms are suspected to stay in these areas. Domestic pets especially dogs that have heartworm disease will have to take a two-week long rest after a drug is given to them to flush and kill the adult worms.Today, prevention is still the best answer to solve this problem. Mosquito season must be guarded to stop the spread of the microfilariae to one animal to another.