The
goal of this study was to determine the
prevalence of Hepatozoon spp.
infection in recently captured
snakes from Botucatu, Säo Paulo
State,
Brazil.
Blood was collected from all
snakes by ventral
tail venipuncture.
Blood smears were
air dried, fixed with
methanol, and stained with 10 percent Giemsa
solution. The slides were microscopically examined for
detection of hemoparasites by
light microscopy at 250x magnification. A total of 238
snakes from 23 species were examined, of which 135 (56.7 percent) were venomous and 103 (43.3 percent) non-
venomous snakes. The more numerous venomous species sampled were
Crotalus durissus terrificus (n=108) and
Bothrops jararaca (n=17) and non-
venomous snakes were Oxyrhopus guibei (n=35),
Boa constrictor amarali (n=18), and Waglerophis merremi (n=13). Hepatozoon spp.
infection was detected in 39 (16.4 percent)
snakes. The
prevalence in venomous and non-
venomous snakes was 20.0 percent and 11.7 percent, respectively. The highest
prevalences observed were 38.9 percent for
Boa constrictor amarali, 35.3 percent for
Bothrops jararaca, and 19.4 percent for
Crotalus durissus terrificus.