¹Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Sivas Cumhuriyet, TR-58140 Sivas - TURKEY
²Department of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Karamanoglu Mehmetbey, TR-70200 Karaman - TURKEY
³Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Kyrgyz-Turkish Manas University, 720044, Bishkek, KYRGYZSTA
⁴Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Firat, TR-23119 Elazig - TURKEY DOI : 10.9775/kvfd.2018.20352 Canine hepatozoonosis is a tick-borne protozoan disease and widespread in Europe, Africa, Asia and America. There is not any available data about the presence of Hepatozoon infections in dogs in Kyrgyzstan. In the study we aimed that investigate the presence of Hepatozoon canis and the prevalance of Hepatozoon infections in dogs from Kyrgyzstan using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and sequence analysis. To determine the prevelance of hepatozoonosis in dogs, a total of 170 blood samples were applied to PCR to amplify a fragment of 666 bp found in 18S SSU rRNA gene of Hepatozoon spp. The PCR results shown that Hepatozoon infection rate was 28.8% (49/170) in dogs. Eleven representative positive samples were sequenced to classification of the species. The nucleotide sequences were compared to the H. canis sequences which registered in GenBank using the basic local alignment search tool. Results of sequence analyse of 11 amplicons indicated that 8 were 100% identical and the other 3 sequences shared 99% similarity with H. canis. The sequences were deposited in Genbank with accession numbers from MG917709 to MG917719. It was the first record of H. canis in dogs in Kyrgyzstan. Keywords : Hepatozoonosis, Hepatozoon canis, Dog, PCR, Sequencing, Kyrgyzstan