SHORT COMMUNICATION Co-infection with Mycoplasma haemofelis and ‘Candidatus Mycoplasma haemominutum’ in three cats from Brazil * Helio A de Morais DVM, PhD, Dip ACVIM 1 , Ana Marcia S Guimar ~ aes DVM 2 , Odilon Vidotto DVM, PhD 4 , Aline Baumann DVM 5 , Alexander W Biondo DVM, PhD 2,3 , Joanne B Messick VMD, PhD, Dip ACVCP 6 * 1 Department of Medical Sciences, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 43210, USA 2 Departamento de Medicina Veterina ´ria, Universidade Federal do Parana ´, Curitiba, PR 80035, Brazil 3 University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61802, USA 4 Departamento de Medicina Veterina ´ria Preventiva, Universidade Estadual de Londrina, Londrina, PR 86051, Brazil 5 Clinilab, Curitiba, PR 82540, Brazil 6 Department of Comparative Pathobiology, School of Veterinary Medicine, Purdue University, 725 Harrison Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA The two most common haemotropic Mycoplasma of cats, Mycoplasma haemofelis and ‘Candidatus Mycoplasma haemominutum’ have been identified using molecular techniques in all continents, except Antarctica. We report the first molecular characterization in South America of a dual infection with M haemofelis and ‘Candidatus Mycoplasma haemominutum’ in three domestic cats. The 16S ribosomal RNA gene was amplified in three anaemic cats in which haemoplasma organisms were seen attached to the erythrocytes in the peripheral blood smear. Bands of the expected size for M haemofelis and ‘Candidatus Mycoplasma haemominutum’ were observed in all three cats. The 393 bp segment of one of the amplicons had a similarity value of 100% to M haemofelis, whereas the other amplicon, a 192 bp segment, was 100% similar to ‘Candidatus Mycoplasma haemominutum’. After diagnosis, two cats received blood transfusion and they were all treated with doxycycline. All three cats recovered uneventfully. Date accepted: 9 May 2007 Ó 2007 ESFM and AAFP. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. M ycoplasma haemofelis is the causative agent of feline infectious anaemia (FIA). This red cell parasite of cats was originally named, Eperythrozoon felis, and sub- sequently renamed, Haemobartonella felis (Neimark et al 2001). Its description in domestic cats in Brazil was first reported in 1976 (Massard et al 1976). More recently, sequence analysis has shown that Haemobartonella felis and related haemotro- phic bacteria belong to the genus Mycoplasmas (Neimark et al 2001). The trivial name, haemo- plasmas was given to these red cell parasites, which form two subclusters within the pneumo- niae group of Mycoplasma. Mycoplasma haemofelis, M haemocanis, and M haemomuris have a character- istic truncation of about 10 bp in a segment corresponding to positions 453e481 of the 16S rRNA gene sequence of Escherichia coli (Johansson et al 1999). This deletion is not present in the other subcluster of haemoplasmas that includes ‘Candidatus M haemominutum’, another haemo- plasma that infects the cat (Messick et al 2002). ‘Candidatus M haemominutum’ is smaller than M haemofelis and was previously called H felis California (Foley and Pedersen 2001). A third * This work was presented in abstract form at the XXVII Con- gresso Brasileiro de Clı ´nicos Veterina ´rios de Pequenos Animais in Vito ´ ria, Espirito Santo, Brazil, 2006. *Corresponding author. Tel/Fax: þ1-765-496-1748. E-mail: jmessic@purdue.edu Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery (2007) 9, 518e520 doi:10.1016/j.jfms.2007.05.005 1098-612X/07/060518+03 $32.00/0 Ó 2007 ESFM and AAFP. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.