Parasite infection related to Hepatozoon luiperdjie

Abstract

Feline hepatozoonosis, due to Hepatozoon felis, has been recently reported in wild cats from Central Europe. At the same time, only two isolated cases were reported in domestic cats, one in Austria, and another in Hungary. In the southern part of Central Europe, Hungary, three cats were presented at two small animal clinics in the course of 1.5 months, their most important clinical findings included anaemia (for all three cats), malignant neoplasia (case #1), chyloabdomen, splenomegaly and hepatic nodules (case #2), and dyspnoea (case #3). Hepatozoon gamonts measuring 12.3 × 6 μm were present in 0.1-0.3 % of the neutrophilic granulocytes. A nearly 1700 bp-long-part of the 18S rRNA gene of this species showed only 98.3 % and 97.7 % sequence identities with H. felis and H. silvestris, respectively. Based on the phylogenetic analysis of this long part of the 18S rRNA gene, this protozoon clustered separately, with moderately high (87 %) support, from H. felis and was a sister species to H. silvestris. In a shorter part of the 18S rRNA gene, the Hepatozoon species in this study had 99.6 % sequence identity to Hepatozoon luiperdjie, and they clustered together phylogenetically, although with low (56 %) support. Based on morphological characteristics and phylogenetic relationships, the protozoan parasite emerging among domestic cats in the southern part of Central Europe is a species most closely related to H. luiperdjie. The emergence of this protozoan parasite in the region warrants monitoring among domestic cats in other countries of Central Europe.