The Occurrence of Mycoplasma haemofelis and Candidatus Mycoplasma Haemominutum in Cats in China Confirmed by Sequence-Based Analysis of Ribosomal DNA

摘要

The present study aimed to examine whether Mycoplasma Haemofelis (MHF) and Candidatus Mycoplasma Haemominutum (CMH) occur in cats in Mainland China. Genomic DNA was extracted from 87 cat blood samples collected from Guangzhou, China and they were examined by conventional Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) assay to detect and distinguish infection of MHF and CMH. The total infection rate of cats with MHF and CMH was 42.5% (37/87), with one female cat being infected with MHF, while 41.4% (36/87) of the infections were due to CMH and none of the cats was positive for concurrent infection with both MHF and CMH. Sequencing of representative amplicons confirmed the results of PCR amplifications. This result, for the first time, demonstrated the existence of MHF and CMH in cats in mainland China.