Cytauxzoon sp.: un protozoo emergente nel gatto

Cytauxzoon felis (C. felis) is a protozoan responsible for cytauxzoonosis, a tickborne infection which affects wild and domestic felids that has been firstly described and studied in the United States. Cytauxzoonosis is an acute, severe and fatal disease in most domestic cats, even if rarely cases of surviving to the infection have been reported. On the other hand, wild affected cats more often had a persistent parasitemia without clinical signs and rarely occured in acute and fatal disease. Recently sporadic infections caused by Cytauxzoon sp. have been reported in wild and domestic cats in Mongolia, Spain and France. No further information about this pathogen is available and it has never been reported in Italy. The aims of this work were: 1) to identify the presence of Cytauxzoon sp. in Italy and 2) to increase knowledge about epidemiology, pathogenesis, ways of transmission, infection carriers and clinico-pathological findings of this infection in domestic cats. The first Cytauxzoon sp. focus in Europe is been identified and described in Trieste (Northeastern Italy) (chapter one). Then it was organized an epidemiological study, involving cats randomly selected (healthy, sick , owned, stray) among patients of some veterinary clinics located in three areas of the Italian territory (Northeast , Central and South). Blood samples for laboratory tests and information on medical history, lifestyle, recent or remote contact with fleas and/or ticks, ectoparasites prophylaxis and clinical signs were collected for each cats (chapter fourth). Moreover, it was evaluated the effect of a therapeutic protocol in two infected cats (chapter two). Ectoparasites (ticks and/or fleas) collected at the time of the clinical evaluation and uterus and fetus, if available, of pregnant females were taken from colony cats living on the Trieste’s focus in order to investigate the Cytauxzoon sp. way of transmission. The cats involved in the study were captured as part of the campaigns of sterilization for birth control (chapter three). ...