EPERYTHROZOONOSIS (Mycoplasma sp.) IN MALAYSIAN PANGOLIN

The Malaysian Pangolin (Manis javanica) is an endangered species, but is widely hunted for its medicinal value in body parts. A total of sixteen pangolins were screened for blood protozoa and six pangolins were confi rmed to be positive for eperythrozoonosis infection based on morphology from blood smears stained with 8% Giemsa. The causative organism, Eperythrozoon sp., with a size of 0.3 μm were observed under a compound microscope at 100× magnification on the surface of red blood cells as blue coloured dots. This is the fi rst report of Eperythrozoon infection from pangolins in Malaysia. Further identifi cation using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is necessary to confi rm E. ovis or wenyonii, which is uncultivatable in artifi cial media.