Genetic and Antigenic Evidence Supports the Separation of Hepatozoon canis and Hepatozoon americanum at the Species Level

Recognition of Hepatozoon canis and Hepatozoon americanum as distinct species was supported by the results of Western immunoblotting of canine anti-H. canis and anti-H. americanum sera against H. canis gamonts. Sequence analysis of 368 bases near the 3′ end of the 18S rRNA gene from each species revealed a pairwise difference of 13.59%.

将犬肝簇虫（Hepatozoon canis）与美洲肝簇虫（Hepatozoon americanum）判定为独立物种的结论，得到了以犬肝簇虫配子体（gamonts）为靶标的犬抗犬肝簇虫血清、犬抗美洲肝簇虫血清的蛋白质免疫印迹（Western immunoblotting）实验结果的支持。对两个物种18S核糖体RNA基因（18S rRNA gene）3'端附近的368个碱基进行序列分析后发现，二者的序列两两差异率达13.59%。