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Clinical and Hematologic Findings in Babesia canis Infection in Eastern Slovakia

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A Correction to this article was published on 31 October 2022

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Abstract

Purpose

Babesia canis infection occurs in many locations throughout Europe. However, various studies report different clinicopathological findings in affected dogs. This study was focused on changes in clinical and hematologic parameters in dogs with B. canis infection from eastern Slovakia.

Methods

The study was prospective and included 45 dogs with suspected babesiosis. Babesia canis infection was confirmed by PCR in 34 cases and by blood smear microscopy in 24 (70.6%) of them. Hematology results, clinical examination from these dogs, and possible co-infection with other tick-borne pathogens by PCR were subsequently evaluated.

Results

The major clinical signs found included lethargy (91%), fever (59%), anorexia (59%), pigmenturia (47%) and icterus (18%). Mortality rate was 6%. Thrombocytopenia was the most common hematologic change, observed in 100% of the dogs with B. canis infection. Other frequent findings were lymphopenia (82%) and anemia (68%). No co-infections were detected. Anaplasma phagocytophilum infection was diagnosed by PCR only in one dog, which was not infected with B. canis.

Conclusions

This study showed that B. canis infection in eastern Slovakia should be diagnosed by PCR when there is clinical suspicion of the disease, as almost 30% of the infected sick dogs did not have demonstrable parasites in their blood smear by microscopy. Lymphopenia is a frequent hematologic finding in B. canis infection and observed even more often than anemia. However, in agreement with previous studies, thrombocytopenia remains the most common hematologic finding associated with B. canis infection.

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Acknowledgements

Authors want to thank doc. MVDr. Dagmar Mudronova, PhD. for offering her expertise and helping with results processing.

Funding

This work was supported by research grant VEGA project 2/0014/21.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Small Animal Clinic, University of Veterinary Medicine and Pharmacy in Kosice, Komenskeho 73, Kosice, Slovakia

    Hana Turna & Andrea Szarkova

  2. Slovak Academy of Sciences, The Institute of Parasitology, Hlinkova 3, Kosice, Slovakia

    Bronislava Vichova & Martina Miterpakova

  3. Koret School of Veterinary Medicine, Hebrew University, Yehoshua Hankin St 21, Rehovot, Israel

    Gad Baneth

  4. Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamycka 129, Prague, Czech Republic

    Miroslav Svoboda

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  1. Hana Turna
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Correspondence to Hana Turna.

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The original online version of this article was revised: the first and last names of all authors were interchanged and have now been corrected.

Appendix

Appendix

See Table 1.

Table 1 Overview of hematology findings in dogs with B. canis infection
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Turna, H., Vichova, B., Miterpakova, M. et al. Clinical and Hematologic Findings in Babesia canis Infection in Eastern Slovakia. Acta Parasit. 67, 1329–1334 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11686-022-00584-8

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