Retrospective study of 46 cases of feline haemobartonellosis in Israel and their relationships with FeLV and FIV infections

Abstract

Forty-six cats with clinical haemobartonellosis were studied; 75 per cent of the cats of known age were two-and-a-half years old or younger, 50 per cent were intact males and 19.5 per cent were castrated males. The predominant signs of the disease were tachypnoea, lethargy, depression, anorexia, infestation with fleas, pale mucous membranes, icterus, emaciation, dehydration, splenomegaly, anaemia, leucocytosis, increased activities of alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase, and azotaemia. Thirty-eight per cent of the cats that were tested for feline leukaemia virus (FeLV) antigen were positive, and 22 per cent of those tested for feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) antibodies were positive. The prevalence of both FeLV and FIV was much higher than in the general Israeli cat population. The cats infected with both Haemobartonella felis and FeLV had a significantly lower body temperature, were more anaemic and the mean cell volume of their erythrocytes was greater than in the cats with haemobartonellosis alone.

Worldwide Occurrence of Feline Hemoplasma Infections in Wild Felid Species

“…Concurrent infections, especially those with immunosuppressive agents, such as CDV, retroviruses, and Theileria spp., could have influenced the frequency of hemoplasma infections. This has also been suspected for domestic cats (10,12) and would be in agreement with the finding that hemotropic mycoplasmas were more common in FeLV-infected than FeLV-uninfected European wildcats in the present study.…”

Molecular Survey of Mycoplasma haemofelis and 'Candidatus Mycoplasma Haemominutum' Infection in Cats in Yamaguchi and Surrounding Areas

“…There were no other significant differences in the frequency of hemoplasma infection according to age, sex, overall health condition, or FIV infection (data not shown). Although the reason why FeLV infection is related to hemoplasma infection in cats has not been determined yet, similar findings have been reported by others [7][8][9]. More recent reports have shown that both FeLV and FIV infections dramatically increase the possibility of hemoplasma infection [7,9].…”

“…Mycoplasma haemominutum' morphologically. A number of molecular techniques, including polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis, have recently been developed for feline hemoplasmas infection, and widely used for both diagnosis and epidemiological studies in the U.K. [16,17], Spain [5], U.S.A. [7,12], Israel [9], and Australia [4]. However, limited numbers of studies on feline hemoplasma infection in Japan have been published.…”

Relationship between the Presence of Bartonella Species and Bacterial Loads in Cats and Cat Fleas (Ctenocephalides felis) under Natural Conditions

“…The high percentage of retroviral infection of the cats in this study suggests that their immunological status was compromised. This might explain the higher Bartonella prevalence than in the Israeli stray cat population (42). However, no difference or association was observed between the FeLV infection status and the Bartonella loads and Bartonella infection status of the cats, respectively.…”