Vector-borne diseases (VBD) of canines persuade a hidden threat all over the globe and its prevalence is high in India due to the favorable hot and humid climatic conditions. Out of prevailing VBD, canine ehrlichiosis, babesiosis and hepatozoonosis are commonly reported, followed by anaplasmosis and trypanosomosis. In the present case report, an atypical case of co-infection with Ehrlichia canis and Babesia canis was observed in a two and half years old Labrador Retriever, female dog with the symptoms of anorexia, pale mucous membrane, transient fever, enlarged popliteal lymph node, distended abdomen, exercise intolerance, debility and severe panting, which was not responded to the earlier treatment of four doses of cefotaxime. Peripheral blood cytology revealed a mixed infection of B. canis and E. canis. Further, the pet was treated with deep intramuscular injection of a single dose of diminazene aceturate at 3.5mg/kg body weight followed by oral doxycycline at 10mg/kg for initial 10

Babesia canis, Ehrlichia canis, Anaemia, Doxycycline, Diminazine, Levamisole.

The gold standard traditional microscopic examination of peripheral blood smears in correlation with hemogram is consistently an effective method for diagnosing and treating vector-borne blood parasites at the field level. However, the technique is time-consuming and less sensitive in detecting carriers. Mixed infection of different haemoparasites in dogs are common in India, which warrants awareness among field veterinarians, and this could be due to repeated exposure of the infected dogs to ticks infected with different parasites. Further, in the current study, the recovery was good with the routinely used babesicidal (diminazene) and anti rickettsial drug (Doxycycline) along with immune-modulatory (Levamisole) and other supportive therapy. In this conventional study, we did not pursue the detection of genomic DNA of Ehrlichia and Babesia for the species level confirmation.

Jeyabal, L., Nagarajan, K. and Ramnaresh, K. (2019). Concurrent infection of Babesia canis and Ehrlichia canis in a Labrador Retriever Dog. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 11(2): 174-178.