Morelli Simone, Traversa Donato, Di Cesare Angela, Colombo Mariasole, Grillini Marika, Paoletti Barbara, Mondazzi Aurora, Frangipane di Regalbono Antonio, Iorio Raffaella, Astuti Chiara, Tsokana Constantina N, Diakou Anastasia
Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Teramo, Località Piano d'Accio snc, 64100, Teramo, Italy.
Department of Animal Medicine, Production and Health, University of Padova, 35020, Legnaro, Padova, Italy.
Curr Res Parasitol Vector Borne Dis. 2024 Jul 19;6:100202. doi: 10.1016/j.crpvbd.2024.100202. eCollection 2024.
Feline hepatozoonosis is a vector-borne disease caused by different species of the genus , i.e. , and . Knowledge on the biology, epidemiology and taxonomy of spp. is still limited, despite the fact that the number of documented spp. infections in domestic cats increased in recent years in different countries. This study was carried out to evaluate the prevalence and the genetic profile of spp. in cats living on the island of Skopelos, Greece. Individual blood samples were collected from 54 owned cats and were subjected to Giemsa-stained blood smear examination to investigate the presence of spp. gamonts and to a specific PCR protocol targeting the 18S rRNA gene of . A total of 45 cats (83.3%) were found infected by spp. by at least one of the methods applied. In particular, 43 (79.6%) of the cats were PCR-positive, and in 6 (11.1%) cats gamonts of spp. were found in the blood smears. A total of 26 sequences were obtained and the presence of three undescribed single nucleotide polymorphisms were detected. The present results indicate that species complex may be hyperendemic in isolated/confined areas. In such contexts, geographical isolation may favor the origin of new genotypes or haplotypes or even new species.
猫肝簇虫病是一种由肝簇虫属不同物种引起的媒介传播疾病，即肝簇虫、犬肝簇虫和鼬肝簇虫。尽管近年来不同国家家猫中记录的肝簇虫属物种感染数量有所增加，但关于肝簇虫属物种的生物学、流行病学和分类学的知识仍然有限。本研究旨在评估希腊斯凯岛家猫中肝簇虫属物种的流行情况和基因特征。从54只家养猫采集个体血样，进行吉姆萨染色血涂片检查以调查肝簇虫属配子体的存在情况，并采用针对肝簇虫18S rRNA基因的特异性PCR方案。通过至少一种应用方法，共发现45只猫（83.3%）感染了肝簇虫属物种。具体而言，43只猫（79.6%）PCR检测呈阳性，6只猫（11.1%）的血涂片中发现了肝簇虫属配子体。共获得26个序列，并检测到三个未描述的单核苷酸多态性。目前的结果表明，肝簇虫物种复合体在孤立/封闭区域可能是高度流行的。在这种情况下，地理隔离可能有利于新基因型或单倍型甚至新物种的产生。
