Diagnosis of Canine Viral Infections

Canine viral infections may be tentatively diagnosed on the basis of clinical signs, hematologic findings, and/or gross pathology; however, definitive diagnosis generally requires laboratory assistance. Laboratory diagnosis of these infections relies on one or more of the following procedures: histopathology, virus isolation, serology, and the detection of virus, or viral antigens, using electron microscopy, fluorescent antibody techniques, immunoperoxidase techniques, and enzyme immunosorbent assays.