Clinical and Haematobiochemical Studies on Experimentally Induced Chronic Babesiosis in Splenectomized Adult Dogs

Abstract

The pathogenicity of the carrier Babesia gibsoni organism was studied in the experimentally inoculated carrier blood into the three susceptible splenectomized adult dogs during the period between 2000 to 2002. The pathogenic effect was assessed on clinical pictures and haematobiochemical changes. All the three experimentally infected dogs showed signs of depression, anorexia and anaemia (pale visible mucous membrane) at 2 years of post-infection. Haematological effects included macrocytic normochromic anemia with polychromasia, anisocytosis and a marked increased in nucleated erythrocytes. Biochemical changes included significant (p < 0.05) increase in mean total serum protein (8.27 ± 2.37), serum bilirubin (1.02 ± 0.11), total serum iron (279 ± 142.03) in comparison to control healthy dogs. It may be concluded from this study that the chronic canine babesiosis caused by B. gibsoni is highly pathogenic associated with anaemia and haematobiochemical alteration.

Key words: Haematobiochemical changes chronic babesiosis, experimentally induced, splenectomized dog

DOI = 10.3329/bjvm.v1i1.1919

Bangl. J. Vet. Med. (2003). 1(1) : 53 - 56