Hepatozoon canis - An Insidious Pathogen and its Morphological Alterations in Chippiparai Dogs

Abstract

This study presents about the pathogenicity of Hepatozoon canis in native dogs of southern districts of Tamil Nadu, India. During the study period from January 2020 to December 2020, a total of 275 Chippiparai dogs were screened for haemoparasitic diseases, out of which seven cases of H. canis were recorded. Among those seven cases, three were concurrent infection with transmissible venereal tumour, one with Babesia canis and three were solitary infections. The clinical signs were mostly non-specific with mild to moderate fever, anorexia and lethargy. The major haematological findings in these cases were severe anaemia in B. canis infection and rest of the cases showed neutrophilic leucocytosis. In one case, more the 30 per cent neutrophils were infected with gamonts of H. canis. The morphology of H. canis is altered from elliptical to round or oval due to chemotherapy with vincristine in Transmissible venereal tumour (TVT) affected dogs.