1Zoological Gardens, Thiruvanathapuram, Kerala, India-695003
2Kerala Forest and Wildlife Department, Thiruvanathapuram, Kerala, India-695003
3Department of Veterinary Surgery and Radiology, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Pookode, Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Pookode, Wayanad, Kerala, India-673576
Department of Veterinary Parasitology, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Pookode, Wayanad, Kerala, India-673576
*Corresponding author. Email: anju@kvasu.ac.in
Online published on 7 March, 2026.
Feline hepatozoonosis is a tick-borne protozoan infection caused by Hepatozoon felis, transmitted by ingestion of the infected tick. Information on genotypes of H. felis from Southern India are scarce. In the present study, blood samples of three wild mammals including a Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris), Indian leopard (Panthera pardus fusca) and a wild cat (Felis chaus) were examined for haemoparasitic infections. Microscopy could detect the gamonts of Hepatozoon spp. in the blood smears of tiger and leopard, while the wild cat did not reveal any protozoans. However, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) targeting 18S rRNA gene of Hepatozoon resulted in an amplicon size of ~666 bp from all three hosts. On phylogenetic analysis, two genotypes viz., genotype I (HfG1, from the wild cat and tiger) and genotype II ((HfG2, from leopard) were observed. In the present study, the sequences from wild cat, tiger and leopard were separated into three haplotypes H2 and H8 (HfG1) and H7 (HfG2) respectively, which further confirmed the results of phylogenetic analysis with the existence of two genotypes of H. felis in south India. Among all the haplotypes, Hap_6 (h=7) was the most frequent haplotype. India shared the highest number of haplotypes (h=13) of H. felis.
Haplotype analysis, Hepatozoon felis, Felis chaus, Panthera pardus fusca, Panthera tigris tigris, PCR, Phylogenetic analysis, 18S rRNA
