Clinical and hematobiochemical response in canine monocytic ehrlichiosis seropositive dogs of Punjab

AIM: As in India especially, the Punjab state sero-prevalence and distribution of ehrlichiosis in relation to clinico-hematobiochemical response remains largely unexplored. Thus, this study was designed to determine the prevalence of vector (tick)-borne tropical canine pancytopenia caused by Ehrlichia canis through enzyme labeled ImmunoComb(®) (IC) assay in dogs from in and around Ludhiana, Punjab. Correlation of prevalence was made with various clinico-hematobiochemical parameters. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Seroprevalence study was carried out using IC(®) test kit (Biogal, Galed Labs). The study was conducted in 84 dogs presented to the Small Animal Clinics, Teaching Veterinary Clinical Complex, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Ludhiana, Punjab. RESULTS: Out of 84 suspected dogs for ehrlichiosis, based on peripheral thin blood smear examination 12 (14.28%) cases were positive for the morulae of E. canis and 73 (86.90%) dogs were found positive to E. canis antibodies through IC(®) canine Ehrlichia antibody test kit, respectively. Among the different age groups 1-3 years of aged group showed highest prevalence (41.09%), followed by the 3-6 years age group (32.87%), infection levels were lower in the <1 year of age group dogs (13.69%) and more than 6 years age group dogs (12.32%). The highest prevalence was seen in Labrador retriever. This study indicates that season plays a very important role in the prevalence of ehrlichiosis. The most common findings observed were anemia, leukocytosis, neutropenia, lymphopenia, thrombocytopenia, eosinophilia followed by hyperbilirubinemia, increased levels of aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase and alkaline phosphatase, hypoalbuminemia, hyperglobulinaemia, decrease in albumin and globulin ratio, increase in blood urea nitrogen and creatinine. CONCLUSIONS: Serological techniques like IC(®) are more useful for detecting chronic and subclinical infections and are ideally suited to epidemiological investigations.