Hepatozoonosis in domestic canines of Greater Buenos Aires

Abstract

Canine hepatozoonosis (CH) is a disease transmitted by ingestion of ticks infected with Hepatozoon canis that can cause severe clinical signs depending on host immunity. The objective of this work was to detect the presence of H. canis in blood samples from clinically healthy dogs from Greater Buenos Aires through microscopic observation in smears of peripheral blood and buff y coat. Secondly, the prevalence of CH in the different neighbor hoods, the association between the variables breed, sex, age and the presence of ticks with the positive hematological diagnosis of CH and the association between hematological alterations and the presence of CH were determined. Of the 207 samples, 10 (4.83%) were positive by observation in peripheral blood smears and 15 (7.24%) in pH logistic layer smears. With respect to the variables evaluated, CH was more frequent in adults, females, mixed-breed and with the presence of ticks; however, the differences were not significant. The highest percent age of positive samples was observed in those patients from the neighbor hoods of Solano and Quilmes. With respect to the hematological alterations, anemia (20%), leukocytosis (40%), lymphocytosis (26.6%) and eosinophilia (80%) were higher in the group of positive samples to CH, however, the differences were not significant (p>0.05). There four study corroborate the endemic of CH in Greater Buenos Aires and show that the prevalence varies with the area from which the samples were obtained and the moment in which the study was conducted. In addition, it reflects the use fullness of the leukocyte concentration to increase the probabilities of positive observation of gamontes when molecular methods are not available.