Vet World   Vol.10   October-2017  Article-11

Clinicopathological alterations in naturally occurring Babesia gibsoni infection in dogs of Middle-South Gujarat, India

Background and Aim: The present research work was undertaken to describe various clinical signs and hematobiochemical alterations in dogs affected with Babesia gibsoni.

Materials and Methods: Blood smears from a total of 79 suspected dogs of Anand region as well as Surat region of Gujarat state (India) were screened for detection of intraerythrocytic piroplasm of small form of Babesia. Diagnosis was made on the basis of clinical signs and demonstration of B. gibsoni organism in Giemsa-stained thin blood smears. The clinical signs were recorded at the time of presentation, and blood samples were subjected to estimation of hematobiochemical parameters by auto hematology analyzers at College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry, Anand. Statistical analysis, interpretation, and comparison of hematobiochemical changes with scientific literature were carried out to understand the pathophysiology of the disease.

Results: Out of 79 dogs, 16 were positive for naturally occurring babesiosis based on the presence of intraerythrocytic piroplasm of small form of Babesia in blood smears. The clinical cases were manifested by wide variety of non-specific clinical signs. The hematological evaluation revealed that the mean values of hemoglobin and total erythrocyte counts in dogs with babesiosis decreased significantly (p<0.01) in comparison to healthy dogs. Among differential leukocyte count, mean values of neutrophils and eosinophils increased while lymphocytes decreased (p<0.01) in dogs with babesiosis in comparison to healthy dogs. Serum biochemistry revealed increase (p<0.01) value of alkaline phosphatase, alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, and globulin as well as decrease in albumin levels (p<0.05) in dogs with babesiosis as compared to healthy dogs.

Conclusion: B. gibsoni is having multisystemic effects with atypical hematobiochemical changes in dog are discussed here, which would aid new insights in diagnosis of disease. Keywords: babesiosis, clinicopathological changes, dogs, intraerythrocytic piroplasm.

Keywords: babesiosis, clinicopathological changes, dogs, intraerythrocytic piroplasm.

How to cite this article: Bilwal AK, Mandali GC, Tandel FB (2017) Clinicopathological alterations in naturally occurring Babesia gibsoni infection in dogs of Middle-South Gujarat, India, Veterinary World, 10(10): 1227-1232.

Received: 24-05-2017  Accepted: 14-09-2017     Published online: 14-10-2017

Corresponding author: Avinash K. Bilwal   E-mail: akbilwal.vet@gmail.com

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2017.1227-1232

Copyright: Bilwal, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.