Abstract
Rangelia vitalii is a haemoparasite that infects erythrocytes, white blood cells and the cytoplasm of endothelial cells of blood capillaries of canids in South America, and has been detected in both domestic dogs and sylvatic canids. Hepatozoon canis is a parasite that infects neutrophils and monocytes of many mammalian hosts. This study reports the infection of Lycalopex gymnocercus from Santa Catarina, Brazil, with R. vitalii and H. canis. The piroplasm was observed on both blood smears and molecular tests. Many large piroplasms were detected inside the erythrocytes, with round, oval, or teardrop-shaped organism, that occurred singly or in pairs. They had an abundant, pale blue cytoplasm and decentral dark red small nucleus. The animal was also infected with H. canis that was detected only by molecular tests. The majority of haematological and biochemistry parameters were within the reference values for domestic dog and wild canids.
Highlights
Rangelia vitalii was first described by Pestana (1910a, b) as a previously unknown piroplasm from dogs, named Piroplasma vitalii
We describe the detection of R. vitalii on blood smears, with molecular confirmation, and molecular detection of H. canis in L. gymnocercus from Santa Catarina, Brazil
Rangelia vitalii has been detected in sylvatic Brazilian canids since 2014 when Soares et al (2014) detected, by PCR, nine C. thous positive for R. vitalii
Summary
Rangelia vitalii was first described by Pestana (1910a, b) as a previously unknown piroplasm from dogs, named Piroplasma vitalii. Despite the fact that R. vitalii has been described since the early 1900s, the species status was only recently confirmed by molecular and transmission studies (SOARES et al, 2011; LEMOS et al, 2012). This protozoan is transmitted by the ixodid tick Amblyomma aureolatum (FRANÇA et al, 2010) and cannot be distinguished from Babesia sp.
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