Occurrence of Mycoplasma haemocanis in dogs infested by ticks in Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil

Abstract

Hemotropic mycoplasmas in dogs, such as Mycoplasma haemocanis, have been described worldwide. Recently, these pathogens have been reported to be causative agent of zoonosis. It is known that its transmission may occur through the action of blood-sucking arthropods (e.g. ticks or fleas), through blood transfusion, contaminated fomites and/or transplacentally. In Brazil, M. haemocanis is present in practically all regions and the tick Rhipicephalus sanguineus sensu lato is suspected the main vector. In the municipality of Campo Grande, state of Mato Grosso do Sul, there is little information about infection of dogs by M. haemocanis, or on the main epidemiological features associated with it. Thus, the aim of the present study was to determine the occurrence of M. haemocanis among dogs infested by ticks and to assess possible associations with some epidemiological factors. The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and DNA sequencing were used to analyze dog blood samples (n = 94). DNA from M. haemocanis was detected in four samples. No significant associations were observed with any epidemiological parameter analyzed here. However, the results from this study confirm that this pathogen is circulating in this region and should be considered in the differential diagnosis of diseases among anemic dogs.

Occurrence and molecular characterization of hemoplasmas in domestic dogs and wild mammals in a Brazilian wetland

“…The molecular analyses of hemoplasmas-16S rRNA sequences revealed a low (2/42) occurrence of M. haemocanis among sampled dogs. The occurrence of M. haemocanis (4.7%) found in the present study was similar to that reported in dogs sampled in an urban area (4.2%) located in the same state of Mato Grosso do Sul (Soares et al, 2016). On the other hand, the found occurrence of M. haemocanis was higher than that found in dogs sampled in the states of Pernambuco (Ramos et al, 2010), northeastern Brazil (1/205), and São Paulo (Alves et al, 2014) (3/154), but lower than that found in dogs sampled in the state of Rio Grande do Sul (17/331) (Valle et al, 2014).…”

“…Although hemoplasmas have been detected in domestic cats (Braga et al, 2012;Miceli et al, 2013;André et al, 2014;Santis et al, 2014) and dogs (Ramos et al, 2010;Alves et al, 2014;Valle et al, 2014;Soares et al, 2016) from several localities in Brazil, few reports have documented the occurrence of hemoplasma species in wild animals. For instance, hemoplasmas have been detected in wild carnivores maintained in captivity in zoos (Willi et al, 2007;Guimarães et al, 2007;André et al, 2011), wild rodents (Vieira et al, 2009;Conrado et al, 2015;Gonçalves et al, 2015), monkeys (Bonato et al, 2015), and deer (Grazziotin et al, 2011) in Brazil.…”

Frequency of Mycoplasma haemocanis infection in dogs of Cuiaba, Mato Grosso, Brazil

“…The low prevalence of infection found is similar to that found in Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul: a 4.25% infection rate among 94 dogs tested (SOARES et al, 2016). However, the infection rate in this study was higher than the observed prevalence of M. haemocanis (1.9%) and Candidatus M. haematoparvum (0.6%) in 154 dogs from Ribeirão Preto (ALVES et al, 2014).…”

“…However, the incidence of the disease is generally low when compared to other pathogens transmitted by ticks such as Anaplasma platys, Babesia vogeli, and Ehrlichia canis (RAMOS et al, 2010). Seventeen dogs with M. haemocanis infections were infested with R. sanguineus, but this factor was not statistically significant (p >0.05); this induces scepticism regarding whether the tick is the main vector or if other arthropods participate in the transmission of M. haemocanis (SOARES et al, 2016).…”

Molecular survey of haemoplasmas in shelter dogs and associations with Rhipicephalus sanguineus sensu lato

“…and canine haemoplasma has been reported in previous studies, and it has been proposed that dogs in subtropical climates may be at higher risk for infection as a result of the concurrent presence of R. sanguineus s.l . (Wengi et al ., ; Soares et al ., ). This is contradicted by research that shows the prevalence of this tick in Spain to be lower than it is in Italy and Portugal, although R. sanguineus s.l .…”