• The rickettsia Haemobartonella felis adheres to cat red blood cells, damaging the cell surface and leading to removal of infected erythrocytes from the circulation by phagocytes in the spleen and liver.
• The replication cycle takes 3-8 weeks, resulting in cyclical variations in bacteraemia and therefore also in clinical signs.
• Dogs can be infected with H. canis, but this rarely causes clinical disease

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