Seasonal periodical appearance of Hepatozoon canis gamont in the peripheral blood.

We investigated the appearance of gamonts in peripheral leukocytes of 13 Hepatozoon canis infected dogs from June 1990 to December 1992. In almost all the dogs, the numbers of gamonts increased from spring to autumn, and decreased from autumn to winter. Particularly in the dogs used for hare hunting, a large number of gamonts was detected from spring to autumn. This finding reveals that the gamont increases in number in the dog which ingested the infected ticks during the hunting season.