Abstract. One hundred seven domestic cats from The Philippines were serologically tested to establish the prevalence of Bartonella infection. A subset of 31 of these cats also had whole blood collected to tentatively isolate Bartonella strains. Bartonella henselae and B. clarridgeiae were isolated from 19 (61%) of these cats. Bartonella henselae type I was isolated from 17 (89%) of the 19 culture-positive cats. Six cats (31%) were infected with B. clarridgeiae, of which four were coinfected with B. henselae. Sixty-eight percent (73 of 107) and 65% (70 of 107) of the cats had antibodies to B. henselae and B. clarridgeiae, respectively, detected by an immunofluorescence antibody (IFA) test at a titer Ն 1:64. When tested by enzyme immunoassay (EIA), 67 cats (62.6%) had antibodies to B. henselae and 71 cats (66.4%) had antibodies to B. clarridgeiae. Compared with the IFA test, the B. henselae EIA had a sensitivity of 90.4% and a specificity of 97%, with positive and negative predictive values of 98.5% and 82.5%, respectively. Similarly, the B. clarridgeiae EIA had a sensitivity of 97% and a specificity of 92% specificity, with positive and negative predictive values of 95.8% and 94.4%, respectively. The presence of antibodies to Bartonella was strongly associated with flea infestation. Domestic cats represent a large reservoir of Bartonella infection in the Philippines.

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Abstract:Hepatozoon canis infection in canines is allegedly an underreported disease in the Philippines. In over the past four decades, there are only two published cases in the country. A total of 168 canine blood samples was processed for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification and blood parasite examination (BPE). The PCR method was able to provide molecular evidence for the presence of Hepatozoon canis genomic DNA in one sample (0.6%). Consequently, Hepatozoon canis gametocytes demonstrating the classical elongated appearance in leucocytes were also consistently seen on Giemsa ® -stained blood smears of the PCR-positive animal after BPE. The study elucidates the parasitological detection and first molecular evidence of Hepatozoon canis infection in the Philippines by PCR.

Serum samples were collected from each of 290 healthy dogs 6 months of age or older living in the Greater Metropolitan Manila (GMM) area over a 12 month period. These samples were examined by the Synbiotics DiroChek ® antigen capture test (San Diego, CA) for evidence of Dirofilaria immitis circulating antigen. At the time of the first sample 220 out of 290 examined were negative by the DiroChek test. Twelve months later 175 of the original 220 uninfected dogs were still uninfected. This is an incidence rate of 20%. This is the first incidence study on client owned dogs reported for D. immitis and illustrates that owners will participate in such studies which are essential if canine populations are to be monitored to evaluate the effect of control efforts.