The population of stray dogs is an underestimated problem in several countries and serves as a critical reservoir for zoonotic parasites. Therefore, this study aimed to identify blood parasites and rickettsia in stray dogs in DKI Jakarta. It included 50 stray dogs that were statistically representative of the entire population used detect disease sampling technique from various cities across the province, where blood samples were collected and subjected to polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis, targeting parasites’ 18S and 16S RNA. PCR analysis showed that 19 samples were tested positive for blood parasites and rickettsia. Furthermore, the sequencing results identified two blood parasites and two infected rickettsia species, including Babesia canis vogeli, Hepatozoon canis, Anaplasma platys, and Ehrlichia canis. Using the t-test, data analysis, which covered numerous categories, comprising city of origin, sex, and age for each species of blood parasites and rickettsia, showed that only the male had a significant difference in Babesia canis vogeli infections with P-value of 0.023. In contrast to the other categories, there were no significant differences. Based on the construction of a phylogenetic tree of Neighbour Joining using pairwise distance, the sample isolates showed close relationships between several origins, including Babesia canis vogeli from Taiwan (JN717134), India (MN700646), and Brazil (MN823219), Hepatozoon canis from Uruguay (OR814232), Anaplasma platys from Egypt (MN227688), as well as Ehrlichia canis from Italy (GQ857078), Israel (U26740), the Philippines (JN121380), India (MK281328), America (MH620196), Brazil (EF195135), and Egypt (MG564254). This implies that parasites and rickettsia may have originated from a common ancestor.
Keywords | Anaplasma platys, Babesia canis vogeli, Ehrlichia canis, Hepatozoon canis, Haemoparasites