1. First Case of Canine Infection with Hepatozoon canis (Apicomplexa: Haemogregarinidae) in the Republic of Korea
- Author
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Seung-Joo Kwon, Ul Soo Choi, Yoon-Hee Kim, and Hyun-Hee Oh
- Subjects
0301 basic medicine ,Male ,Haemogregarinidae ,030231 tropical medicine ,Case Report ,Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction ,Apicomplexa ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Dogs ,hepatozoonosis ,Republic of Korea ,medicine ,Animals ,Dog Diseases ,Protozoan Infections, Animal ,Whole blood ,Doxycycline ,Hepatozoon canis ,Korea ,biology ,business.industry ,030108 mycology & parasitology ,biology.organism_classification ,medicine.disease ,Pancytopenia ,Virology ,Staining ,Infectious Diseases ,Canis ,Treatment Outcome ,dog ,Parasitology ,business ,medicine.drug - Abstract
This report describes a dog infected with Hepatozoon canis, the first canine infection in the Republic of Korea. A 2-year-old intact male Maltese dog presented with anorexia and depression. Physical examinations revealed mild dehydration and hyperthermia (39.8°C), and blood analysis showed pancytopenia. Diff-Quik staining of blood smear specimens showed the presence of ellipsoidal shaped structures (gamonts of H. canis) within a small number of neutrophils. Real-time PCR analysis using whole blood confirmed infection by H. canis. The clinical condition of the dog improved after symptomatic treatment and administration of doxycycline. Although a molecular epidemiologic survey in Korea showed H. canis infection of dogs, to our knowledge this is the first report of a dog infection in Korea molecularly shown to be H. canis.
- Published
- 2017