dog and cat assay data sheet

Mycoplasma haemominutum

Test code: B0115 - Ultrasensitive qualitative detection of Mycoplasma haemominutum by real time polymerase chain reaction

Candidatus Mycoplasma haemominutum (CMhm) is a red blood cell bacterial parasite of cats and is therefore regarded as a hemoplasma. This bacterial species belongs to the genus Mycoplasma. Together with Mycoplasma haemofelis (formerly Haemobartonella felis) and Candidatus Mycoplasma turicensis, these three bacterial species are the three most common pathogens causing infectious anemia of cats.

Mycoplasma haemominutum occurs worldwide and can affect up to 20% of feline populations. Besides cats, other animals including dogs, rodents, and sheep can also be infected by this bacterial species. The exact mode of transmission is unknown, but it is believed to occur through contact with infected animals or their blood.

In contrast to M. haemofelis, which can cause severe symptoms in infected cats, M. haemominutum infection normally only results in minimal clinical signs, and sometimes anemia may not even develop in infected cats. However, if cats are immunodeficient due to another infection, such as feline immunodeficiency virus or feline leukemia virus, infected cats can exhibit more severe symptoms. Because infection with Mycoplasma haemominutum often only results in subclinical presentation, it is difficult for cat owners to know that their cats are infected.

Because this bacterial species is difficult to culture, identification of infection in the past usually relied on cytology and blood smear microscopy, which are not very sensitive. However, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a preferred method to characterize the infection due to its high sensitivity and specificity (Altay et al., 2025; Yamakawa et al., 2023).

Utilities:

• Help confirm the disease causing agent
• Shorten the time required to confirm a clinical diagnosis of Mycoplasma haemominutum infection
• Help ensure that cat populations are free of M. haemominutum
• Early prevention of spread of M. haemominutum among a group of cats
• Minimize human exposure to M. haemominutum

References:
Altay, K., Coskun, A., Erol, U., Sahin, O.F. and Turk, S. (2025) Development of a novel triplex-PCR assay for the identification of feline hemoplasma species and survey of hemoplasma species in cats in Türkiye. Parasitol. Int. 104:102969.

Specimen requirement: 0.2 ml EDTA whole blood, or 0.2 ml tissue culture, or tissue biopsy.

Contact Zoologix if advice is needed to determine an appropriate specimen type for a specific diagnostic application. For specimen types not listed here, please contact Zoologix to confirm specimen acceptability and shipping instructions.

For all specimen types, if there will be a delay in shipping, or during very warm weather, refrigerate specimens until shipped and ship with a cold pack unless more stringent shipping requirements are specified. Frozen specimens should be shipped so as to remain frozen in transit. See shipping instructions for more information.

Turnaround time: 2 business days

Methodology: Qualitative real time PCR

Normal range: Nondetected