A Comparison of Peripheral Blood Smears, Autologous Cell Cultures, and Reverse Line Blot Hybridisation in Screening for Anaplasma/Ehrlichia in Roaming Dogs and Symptomatic Dogs in Trinidad

This study compared two methods to detect cases of canine ehrlichiosis in a field setting. One method was a polymerase chain reaction for the 16S rRNA gene followed by reverse line blot hybridisation with genera and species-specific probes for Anaplasma/Ehrlichia. The second method was an autologous cell culture of peripheral leucocytes isolated from heparinised blood and maintained in a homologous canine serum in Dulbecco’s Modified Eagle medium without antibiotics. The cultures were examined under light microscopy for inclusion bodies after 48 h. Leucocytes were successfully propagated for 20 of the 34 samples submitted for autologous cell culture. Inclusion bodies were observed after cell culture in leucocytes of eight dogs. Two dogs were positive to the Anaplasma/Ehrlichia genera probe and six dogs were positive to the E. canis probe after reverse line blot hybridisation. There was acceptable agreement between reverse line blot hybridisation and cell culture results. Both reverse line blot hybridisation and autologous cell cultures can be used to detect E. canis in subclinical and clinical cases of disease. A definitive diagnosis of E. canis is best achieved by a combination of clinical signs, positive autologous cell culture, and reverse line blot hybridisation results.