Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Ehrlichiosis and anaplasmosis infections found in dogs in Tunisia
By M'ghirbi, Y et al.·Published in Parasitology research·2009·Service d'Entomologie Mé·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Clinical, serological, and molecular evidence of ehrlichiosis and anaplasmosis in dogs in Tunisia.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of dogs in Tunisia were tested for two tick-borne infections, ehrlichiosis and anaplasmosis, after showing symptoms of illness. Out of 286 dogs tested, over half had antibodies for Ehrlichia canis, and a smaller number had antibodies for Anaplasma phagocytophilum. In a closer examination of 58 sick dogs, some were found to be infected with these bacteria, with a few having both infections at the same time. Treatment options for these infections typically include antibiotics, and many dogs can recover well with prompt veterinary care.
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Abstract
A seroepidemiological survey was conducted in five bioclimatic areas of Tunisia to determine the prevalence of antibodies to Ehrlichia canis and Anaplasma phagocytophilum antigens, surrogate markers of the agents of canine monocytic ehrlichiosis (CME) and canine granulocytic ehrlichiosis, respectively. Among 286 collected sera, 54.2% and 25.2% were seropositive for E. canis and A. phagocytophilum, respectively, by the indirect immunofluorescence antibody (IFA) test. Clinical and hematological tests were done only for 58 sick dogs from Tunis area. A reverse line blot (RLB) hybridization was then used to identify isolated Ehrlichia and Anaplasma species infecting dogs (n = 228). Among them, only two dogs were infected by A. phagocytophilum; ten sample dogs were demonstrated infected by E. canis and ten infected by Ehrlichia sp., from which one dog showed a mixed infection with A. phagocytophilum and E. canis and one with A. phagocytophilum and Ehrlichia sp. RLB findings were confirmed by sequencing; BLAST search against GenBank revealed high similarity of the sequence of Ehrlichia sp. PCR/RLB amplicons with Anaplasma platys 16S rRNA partial sequence.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19018569/