BackgroundAlthough many vector-borne agents are potential zoonoses and cause substantial morbidity and mortality in dogs worldwide, there are limited data on these organisms in dogs of China.MethodsQuantitative PCRs for vector-borne agents were performed to investigate their prevalences in convenience whole blood samples obtained from 1114 dogs from 21 veterinary clinics and a commercial dog breeding facility in ten provinces of China. In addition, the PCRs were performed on 146 Rhipicephalus sanguineus senso lato and 37 Linognathus setosus collected from dogs in the commercial dog breeding facility.ResultsDNAs of Babesia gibsoni and B. vogeli (1.2 %), Ehrlichia canis (1.3 %), Hepatozoon canis (1.8 %) and Theileria orientalis (0.1 %) or a closely related organism were detected in the bloods of the dogs studied, and Babesia vogeli (3.4 %) and Ehrlichia canis (4.1 %) in R. sanguineus senso lato. The qPCRs for Anaplasma spp., Dirofilaria immitis and Leishmania spp. were negative for all blood samples, ticks and lice. At least one vector-borne agent was found in dogs from 5 of the 10 provinces investigated in this study. Overall, 4.4 % (49/1117) of the dogs studied were positive for at least one vector-borne agent with the prevalence being highest in the commercial breeding colony (24/97; 24.7 %).ConclusionsOur study confirms that B. vogeli, B. gibsoni, H. canis, and E. canis occur in China. Also, we present evidence that T. orientalis or a closely related organism can infect dogs.

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Despite the fact vector-borne diseases (VBDs) have been increasingly reported in dogs worldwide, there are only limited reports on VBDs in dogs in China with most being based on molecular detection of active infections. To provide further data on the exposure of dogs in China to VBD agents, we used commercial immunochromatographic assays to test plasma from 637 apparently healthy indoor and breeding colony dogs from 21 veterinary clinics in 10 provinces in China and a commercial dog breeding facility for circulating antigen of Dirofilaria immitis, and for circulating antibodies against Ehrlichia spp., Anaplasma spp., and Borrelia burgdorferi. Overall, we found only low levels of exposure to Ehrlichia spp. (4.7%; 30/637), Anaplasma spp. (1.4%; 9/637), B. burgdorferi (0.9%; 6/637) and D. immitis (0.2%; 1/637) with most of the positive animals coming from the commercial breeding colony (26/103; 25.2%) where ectoparasites were most commonly noted. At least one vector-borne agent was found in dogs from 6 of the 10 provinces investigated. Our results confirm exposure of dogs from around China to a variety of VBDs, even indoor pets seldom observed to harbor ectoparasites.

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