First report of Cytauxzoon sp. infection in Germany: organism description and molecular confirmation in a domestic cat

Abstract

Cytauxzoonosis is described as an emerging tick-borne disease of domestic and wild felids caused by protozoans of the genus Cytauxzoon . While in the Americas the condition is described as a fatal disease, in Europe, reports on the clinical expression of the infection are scarce. This study describes the first case of Cytauxzoon sp. infection in Germany, in a domestic cat. A 6-year-old male domestic cat living in Saarlouis (Saarland) was presented with anorexia, lethargy and weight loss. The cat had an outdoor lifestyle and had not travelled abroad. Serum clinical chemistry analysis revealed azotaemia with markedly increased symmetric dimethylarginine, hypercreatinemia, hyperphosphatemia and hypoalbuminemia. Moreover, a mild non-regenerative anaemia was present. Approximately 1 year prior to these findings, the domestic cat was diagnosed with a feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) infection. These results pointed toward a decreased glomerular filtration rate, presumably as a result of kidney dysfunction. Round to oval signet ring–shaped intraerythrocytic organisms, morphologically suggestive for a piroplasm, were revealed during blood smear evaluation with a degree of parasitaemia of 33.0%. PCR analyses and sequencing of a region of the 18S rRNA gene confirmed the presence of a Cytauxzoon sp. infection, with 99–100% nucleotide sequence identity with previously published Cytauxzoon sp. isolates. As this is the first molecularly confirmed Cytauxzoon sp. infection in a domestic cat in Germany, these findings suggest that cytauxzoonosis should be considered as a differential diagnosis in cases of anaemia in outdoor domestic cats, particularly in areas where wild felid populations are present.

Cytauxzoon europaeus infections in domestic cats in Switzerland and in European wildcats in France: a tale that started more than two decades ago

“…Infection with Cytauxzoon spp. was also recently reported in a 6-year-old domestic cat from Saarlouis (Saarland), Germany that presented with anorexia, lethargy and weight loss [ 30 ].…”

“…In recent years, Cytauxzoon spp. infections with a species molecularly distinct from C. felis have been reported in domestic cats in a number of European countries, including Italy, France, Spain, Portugal and, most recently, Switzerland and Germany [ 22 – 30 ]. There have also been reports of infections with Cytauxzoon spp.…”

Cytauxzoon sp. and Hepatozoon spp. in Domestic Cats: A Preliminary Study in North-Eastern Italy

“…The BLAST analysis retrieved 99.68–100% homology with sequences depositedas Cytauxzoon sp. isolated from domestic cats in France [ 8 ], in Portugal [ 9 ], in Switzerland [ 10 ], and in Germany [ 11 ], together with isolates from the European wildcat in Romania and Bosnia and Herzegovina [ 39 , 42 ].…”

“…Then, reports of Cytauxzoon in cats were described only in some US regions [ 3 , 4 ], until the 2000s, when cases were also reported in Europe. More recently, cats positive for Cytauxzoon have been recorded in Spain [ 5 , 6 ], France [ 7 , 8 ], Portugal [ 9 ], Switzerland [ 10 ], and Germany [ 11 ]. In Italy, cases were limited to an area in the North-Eastern region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, where an endemic focus was described in the city of Trieste with a prevalence rate of 23% among owned and stray cats [ 12 ].…”

Role of Zoo-Housed Animals in the Ecology of Ticks and Tick-Borne Pathogens—A Review

“…Another risk for zoo and other captive animals is free-roaming domestic cats that often stray into zoo or farm grounds. These cats are commonly infested with local ticks, and are hosts to various vector-borne infections [ 110 , 149 , 150 , 151 ]. They can thus potentially serve as one of the sources that increase the numbers of infected ticks in the areas that they commonly occupy.…”