Hemogram Interpretation and Diagnosis of Blood Parasites of Canines

Author: L. Jeyabal*

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Abstract

The organisms that live in the blood of their animal hosts are called as blood parasites and these parasites can range from bacteria and rickettsiae to single-celled more complexed protozoa. The transmission varies, depending on the parasite, but often they are transmitted through the bites of ticks or flies. Various blood parasites such as Ehrlichia canis, Babesia canis, Hepatozoon canis and Trypanosoma evansi can cause serious threat in canines. The routine diagnosis in detection of various developmental stages of intracellular parasites with Romnowsky’s staining method would be a greatest task of an expert parasitologist. Further, each blood parasite is associated with specific hematological variations and identification of these hematological alterations during routine laboratory screening of blood samples from dogs displaying clinical signs would be essential for diagnosing blood parasitic infections. In this manuscript twenty two canine blood samples suspected for various hemop

Keywords

Blood parasite, Haemoprotozoan parasite, Canine, haemogram analysis.

Conclusion

The various case reports indicated the importance of hemogram for the diagnosis of blood parasites even in the absence of specific organism in the blood cells. Majority of the Canine monocytic ehrlichiosis was presented with thrombocytopenia, monocytosis, and anemia. Hepatozoonosis was reported with anemia, leukocytosis, neutrophilia, thrombocytopenia and monocytosis. In contrast, anemia, thrombocytopenia and lymphopenia were the blood abnormalities of canine babesiosis. Severe to moderate reduction in TEC, PCV, Hb and TLC values with marginal neutrophilia, eosinophilia and lymphocytopenia was reported with T. evansi infection. Further, the study concluded that the canines with lower RBC, Hb, PCV, and platelet values than the normal hematological profiles were under higher risk for blood parasitic infections.

References

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How to cite this article

Jeyabal, L. (2019). Hemogram Interpretation and Diagnosis of Blood Parasites of Canines. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 11(1): 290-294