The First Report ofHepatozoon canisIdentified inVulpes vulpesand Ticks from Italy

Abstract

This is the first report on the presence of Hepatozoon canis in Vulpes vulpes in Italy. During the years 2005 and 2006, a total of 119 foxes were collected and their spleen tissues were screened by microscopy, polymerase chain reaction, and sequencing. In the same area, 290 ticks were picked off from dogs or collected from the environment. Microscopy detected inclusion bodies regarded as belonging to the genus Hepatozoon in four samples, whereas molecular diagnostics evidenced 16 foxes (13.4%) and 6 ticks (2.1%) positive to H. canis. The H. canis isolates we found in foxes, compared with the strains we previously detected in dogs from the same area and with the strains found in foxes from other European countries, show a certain genetic heterogeneity. In fact, seven isolates cluster with the Italian dog strain and nine isolates cluster with the fox strain found in Spain and Slovakia; moreover, the dog's strain is closely related to one tick's isolate, and the strain found in three Rhipicephalus sanguineus and in one Ixodes ricinus collected from the environment cluster with the aforementioned Spanish and Slovak fox strains. Our findings confirm the importance of R. sanguineus as final host and suggest that I. ricinus might also be implicated in parasite transmission, explaining in that way the occurrence of hepatozoonosis in areas considered R. sanguineus-free. The peridomestic habits of V. vulpes and the increasing global temperature are expected to amplify the impact of this vector-borne disease and to enforce the transmission of Hepatozoon to domestic animals.

Prevalence and diversity of Babesia, Hepatozoon, Ehrlichia, and Bartonella in wild and domestic carnivores from Zambia, Africa

“…Most infections have been identified by examination of blood smears and were classified as H. canis, a cosmopolitan parasite of canids; however, recent genetic characterization has revealed that numerous variants, subspecies, or cryptic species of H. canis exist worldwide (East et al 2008;Gabrielli et al 2010;Starkey et al 2013). In wild canids, Hepatozoon infections are typically subclinical (McCully et al 1975), but a non-H. canis species of Hepatozoon was reported to cause clinical disease in spotted hyenas in Tanzania (East et al 2008).…”

Brazilian canine hepatozoonosis

“…However, this association was not found in rural dogs in the state of Rio de Janeiro (O'DWYER et al, 2001). Other tick species have been identified as possible hosts, such as Haemaphysalis flava in Japan (MURATA et al, 1995) and Ixodes ricinus in Italy (GABRIELLI et al, 2010).…”

MOLECULAR ASSESSMENT OFHEPATOZOON(APICOMPLEXA: ADELEORINA) INFECTIONS IN WILD CANIDS AND RODENTS FROM NORTH AFRICA, WITH IMPLICATIONS FOR TRANSMISSION DYNAMICS ACROSS TAXONOMIC GROUPS

“…Hepatozoon spp. have been detected in canid species that occur in Africa such as golden jackals C. aureus (Duscher et al 2013), black-backed jackals Canis mesomelas (McCully et al 1975), African wild dogs Lycaon pictus (Williams et al 2013), and red foxes Vulpes vulpes (Gabrielli et al 2010).…”