**Pharmacological Treatment of Giardiasis**

**Pharmacological Treatment of Giardiasis**

#### Víctor Manuel Molina Díaz Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

Víctor Manuel Molina Díaz

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.71803

#### **Abstract**

Giardiasis is a disease caused for a myoflagellate protozoan known as *Giardia duodenalis,* of which varieties have been described and whose morphological characteristics are identical to other species such as *G. lamblia* and *G. intestinalis*; considered for various authors as the same species, this protozoan parasites several domestic species including man, but has important relevance in the canine and feline species, due to their zoonotic potential. In recent years, the number of cases of canine and feline giardiasis has increased, not only because it is treated of a cosmopolitan parasite, which is closely related to unsanitary conditions, but also because the conventional treatments for its control and eradication have shown resistance phenomena. It is for this reason and being a parasite of potential zoonotic risk that at present pharmacological tests have been developed in the search for new alternatives for the treatment of giardiasis, especially in the canine and feline species as mentioned earlier.

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.71803

**Keywords:** benzimidazoles, *Giardia intestinalis*, imidazoles, nitazoxanide, teclozan
