Detection of Rangelia vitalii (Piroplasmida: Babesiidae) in asymptomatic free-ranging wild canids from the Pampa biome, Brazil

Canine rangeliosis is a tick-borne diseasecaused by the protozoan Rangelia vitalii, which has only been reported in South America. With this knowledge, we hypothesized that neotropical foxescould act as asymptomatic natural carriers of R. vitalii. To test this, we captured 44 free-ranging foxesand investigated the presence of R. vitalii DNA, and whether the infected animals presented any clinical findings or hematologicalchanges. Eight foxes(18%), seven Cerdocyon thous(7/27–25%), and one Lycalopex gymnocercus (1/17–5%) were positive for R. vitalii. All foxeswere clinically healthy and showed no hematological abnormalities. Thus, we propose that neotropical canids, particularly C. thous, could be the natural carriers of R. vitalii.