Impact of Subclinical Infection on Farmed Domestic Pigeons from Central Java (Yogyakarta), Indonesia, with Special Reference to Changes in the Hemogram.

Pigeon haemoproteosis caused by (Apicomplexa: Haemosporida: Haemoproteidae) is globally prevalent in rock doves (), although little is known regarding this disease in pigeons and doves in Indonesia. Blood samples of 35 farmed domestic pigeons ( f. ) from four localities in Yogyakarta Special Region, Central Java, Indonesia, were collected from March to June, 2016, subjected to a hemogram, and analyzed for the presence of hemoprotozoan infections. Microscopic examination of blood smears revealed a prevalence of 62.5-100% of at the four localities ( = 8-10 for each locality), and geometric means of 3.0-5.6% of erythrocytes were parasitized by young and mature gametocytes, suggesting that all infected pigeons were in the chronic phase of infection with repeated recurrences and/or reinfections. Nucleotide sequencing of mitochondrial cytochrome gene () for haemosporidian species demonstrated the distribution of four major lineages of (mainly HAECOL1, accompanied by COLIV03, COQUI05, and CXNEA02 according to the MalAvi database). Hemogram analysis, involving the estimation of packed cell volume, erythrocyte counts, mean corpuscular volume, mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration, and plasma protein and fibrinogen levels of 20 parasitized pigeons and five non-infected pigeons demonstrated significant macrocytic hypochromic anemia with hypoproteinemia and hyperfibrinogenemia in the infected pigeons. This study shows the profound impact of long-lasting subclinical pigeon haemoproteosis caused by on the health of farmed domestic pigeons.