A case report of fatal feline babesiosis caused by Babesia canis in north western Spain.

Publisher: BioMed Central Country of Publication: England NLM ID: 101249759 Publication Model: Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1746-6148 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 17466148 NLM ISO Abbreviation: BMC Vet Res Subsets: MEDLINE

Original Publication: London : BioMed Central, 2005-

Babesia*/genetics ; Babesiosis*/diagnosis ; Babesiosis*/epidemiology ; Cat Diseases*/epidemiology ; Dog Diseases*/diagnosis ; Thrombocytopenia*/veterinary; Animals ; Anorexia/veterinary ; Cats ; Dogs ; Female ; Lethargy/veterinary ; Spain/epidemiology

Background: In Europe, Babesia infections in cats are sporadic and only partial knowledge is currently available since the number of described cases including both the clinical presentation and the molecular identification of the Babesia species involved is limited. In the present case report, the clinical signs, the epidemiological data and the molecular results suggest that this is the first reported fatal case of feline babesiosis caused by Babesia canis.
Case Presentation: A six month old female European shorthair cat from north-western Spain died after being hospitalized for two days. This animal was pregnant and showed anorexia, lethargy, weakness, jaundice and fever with increased respiratory and heart rates. Haematological analysis revealed haemolytic regenerative anaemia, thrombocytopenia and leukocytosis. The presence of piroplasms was assessed using a PCR targeting the 18S rRNA gene of Babesia spp. and Theileria spp.; the sample resulted positive and B. canis was identified by DNA sequence analysis. The possible existence of co-infections with other vector-borne pathogens such as Anaplasma spp., Bartonella spp., Borrelia burgdorferi s.l., Cytauxzoon spp., Ehrlichia spp., Hepatozoon canis, Mycoplasma spp. or Rickettsia spp. was excluded by qPCR.
Conclusions: Our results together with previous reports on Babesia infections in cats from Europe suggest that feline babesiosis should be included in the differential diagnosis of animals with anaemia, thrombocytopenia, anorexia and lethargy, especially in young or immunocompromised animals from endemic areas for canine babesiosis.
(© 2022. The Author(s).)

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ED431C 2019/04 Xunta de Galicia

Keywords: Babesia canis; Case report; Cat; Feline babesiosis; Spain

Date Created: 20220515 Date Completed: 20220518 Latest Revision: 20230916

20240105

PMC9107175

10.1186/s12917-022-03287-4

35568873