AAHA Guidelines Spotlight Emerging Parasites in Dogs and Cats

What happened

• The American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) released One Health guidelines covering 12 parasites in dogs and cats that are spreading, resurfacing or becoming harder to treat, according to dvm360’s report on November 3, 2026 ¹.
• The guidelines also cover careful use of antiparasitic drugs and how veterinary teams can talk with owners about risk ¹.

What stands out

Based on the article’s summary, the guidelines highlight concerns such as:

• a hookworm that can survive treatment with three drug classes, and multidrug-resistant hookworms more broadly ¹
• tapeworms with reduced response to praziquantel ¹
• heartworm with reduced effectiveness of some preventive drugs ¹
• other parasites, including the raccoon roundworm Baylisascaris procyonis and Trypanosoma cruzi, which causes Chagas disease, and New World screwworm, which the article says resurfaced in the United States this year ¹

What owners can do

Nothing here means you should change your dog’s medication on your own. The practical points are the familiar ones: keep your dog on a vet-recommended parasite prevention plan, have stool and heartworm tests done as your vet advises, and tell your vet if parasites seem to keep coming back despite treatment. See the parasite section of our dog health guide.

We could read only the summary of the dvm360 report, not the full article or the guidelines, so we haven’t listed all twelve parasites. The guidelines themselves are the authoritative source.