Vector-borne pathogens in dogs of different regions of Iran and Pakistan

Abstract

Canine vector-borne diseases (CVBDs) are highly prevalent in tropical and subtropical countries, mainly due to favorable climate conditions and reduced adoption of preventive measures. This study aimed to provide a comprehensive overview on the prevalence of CVBDs in Iran and Pakistan where limited data are available. Blood samples were collected from 403 dogs from six provinces in Iran and Pakistan to assess the presence of pathogen DNA (i.e., Anaplasma spp., Coxiella burnetii, Ehrlichia spp., Rickettsia spp., Babesia spp., Hepatozoon spp., filarioids, and Leishmania spp.). Sera were also screened by an immunofluorescence antibody test for the detection of antibodies against Leishmania infantum. In total, 46.9% of dogs scored positive to Hepatozoon canis being the most frequently detected (41.4%), followed by Anaplasma platys (6.4%), Ehrlichia canis (3.4%), Rickettsia spp. (2.2%), Babesia vogeli (1.0%), and L. infantum (0.3%). A seroprevalence of 9.6% to anti-L. infantum IgG was also recorded. Data reported herein demonstrate that dogs from Iran and Pakistan are at a high risk of CVBDs, particularly of canine hepatozoonosis. Effective control strategies are advocated for minimizing the risk of infection in animals and humans, also in consideration of the zoonotic potential of some pathogens detected.

Keywords: Anaplasma platys; Canine vector-borne pathogens; Ehrlichia canis; Hepatozoon canis; Iran; Leishmania infantum; Pakistan; Rickettsia spp..

Fig. 1

Samples were collected from different provinces in Iran and Pakistan

Fig. 2

Phylogenetic relationship of Hepatozoon spp. sequences isolated in this study (in bold) to other Hepatozoon spp. based on a partial sequence (327 bp) of the 18S rRNA gene. The analyses were performed using a maximum likelihood with Hasegawa-Kishino-Yano model. A gamma distribution was used to model evolutionary rate differences among sites. Homologous sequence from Adelina bambarooniae (accession nos. AF494058) was used as the outgroup

Fig. 3

Phylogenetic relationship of Rickettsia spp. sequences isolated in this study (in bold) to other Rickettsia strains based on a partial sequence (345 bp) of the gltA gene. The analyses were performed using a maximum likelihood method with Tamura 3-parameter model. A gamma distribution was used to model evolutionary rate differences among sites. Homologous sequences from Rickettsia typhi (accession nos. U59714) and Rickettsia prowazekii (accession nos. U59715) were used as the outgroups