Molecular epizootiology of canine hepatozoonosis in Croatia

• Published in: International journal for parasitology 2009-08, Vol.39 (10), p.1129-1136
• Main Authors: Vojta, Lea, Mrljak, Vladimir, Ćurković, Snježana, Živičnjak, Tatjana, Marinculić, Albert, Beck, Relja
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Biological and medical sciences; Canis; Clethrionomys glareolus; coccidiosis; Coccidiosis - epidemiology; Coccidiosis - parasitology; Coccidiosis - veterinary; Croatia - epidemiology; disease detection; disease prevalence; DNA, Protozoan - genetics; Dog Diseases - epidemiology; Dog Diseases - genetics; Dog Diseases - parasitology; Dogs; epidemiological studies; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; genetic variation; Hepatozoon; Hepatozoon canis; Heterogeneity; Isolate groups; Life cycle. Host-agent relationship. Pathogenesis; Molecular detection; molecular epidemiology; Molecular Sequence Data; pathogen identification; phylogeny; Polymerase Chain Reaction - veterinary; Prevalence; Protozoa; Protozoan Infections, Animal - epidemiology; Protozoan Infections, Animal - genetics; Protozoan Infections, Animal - parasitology; ribosomal DNA; RNA, Ribosomal, 18S - genetics; Sequence analysis
• ISSN: 0020-7519; 1879-0135
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpara.2009.02.007

An epizootiological survey was conducted to investigate the prevalence of hepatozoonosis in a population of 924 apparently asymptomatic dogs from different regions of Croatia. DNA was isolated from canine blood and screening PCR on the 666bp fragment of 18S rRNA revealed that 108 (11.8%) of dogs were infected. Positive samples were confirmed by partial sequencing of the 18S rRNA gene. The consensus sequences, derived from various sequence data sets, were compared with sequences of 18S ssrRNA of Hepatozoon spp. available in GenBank. The alignments revealed 106 Hepatozoon canis and two Hepatozoon sp. sequences. Among H. canis isolates, we found a certain amount of heterogeneity, while both Hepatozoonsp. isolates were identical to the Spanish isolate (Accession No. AY600625) from Clethrionomys glareolus. On the basis of eight commonly mutated nucleotide positions in the partial 18S rRNA gene sequence, we divided the H. canis isolates into five groups. The results obtained indicate a higher prevalence and significance of hepatozoonosis in Croatia than previously believed and demonstrate that the organisms belonging to H. canis that infect European dogs are genetically very heterogeneous.