Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Detecting Babesia and other infections in dogs with blood test
By Yisaschar-Mekuzas, Yael et al.·Published in Veterinary parasitology·2013·School of Veterinary Medicine·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Identification of Babesia species infecting dogs using reverse line blot hybridization for six canine piroplasms, and evaluation of co-infection by other vector-borne pathogens.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of dogs in Spain, Portugal, and Israel were tested for infections caused by blood parasites, specifically Babesia species, which are spread by ticks. The study found that many dogs in Portugal had Babesia infections, often alongside other infections like Leishmania and Ehrlichia, while Israeli dogs had fewer infections due to different tick populations. The researchers developed a new test that can detect multiple infections at once, which is more sensitive than previous methods. This could help veterinarians better diagnose and treat dogs affected by these infections.
People also search for: dog Babesia infection symptoms · tick-borne diseases in dogs · treatment for dog Leishmania infection
Abstract
Canine infection by vector-borne hemoparasites is frequent in tropical and sub-tropical areas where exposure to hematophageous ectoparasites is intensive. A reverse line blot (RLB) assay was designed to improve the simultaneous detection of all named canine piroplasm species combined with other vector-borne pathogens of dogs including Ehrlichia canis, Hepatozoon canis and Leishmania infantum common in the Mediterranean basin. Blood samples of 110 dogs from Spain (n=21), Portugal (n=14) and Israel (n=75) were analyzed. The study evaluated 2 groups of dogs, 49 dogs with piroplasm infection detected by blood smear microscopy from Portugal, Spain and Israel, and 61 dogs surveyed from rural areas in Israel, for which infection status with vector-borne pathogens was unknown. Among the dogs previously diagnosed with piroplasmosis, infection with Babesia canis, Babesia vogeli, Babesia gibsoni and Theileria annae was detected in the Iberian dogs while only B. vogeli was found in Israeli dogs. These differences are attributed to the absence of tick vectors for some piroplasm species such as Dermacentor reticulatus in Israel. Eleven (79%) of the Babesia-positive dogs from Portugal were co-infected with other pathogens including L. infantum, H. canis and E. canis. Eight of 61 (13%) rural Israeli dogs were co-infected with two or more pathogens including B. vogeli, L. infantum, E. canis, and H. canis. Triple infections were demonstrated in 2 dogs. The RLB detection limit for Babesia was 50-fold lower than that of PCR. This study presents a RLB to simultaneously detect and separate the major vector-borne dog pathogens in southern Europe and the Middle East.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23017370/