Clindamycin in the Treatment of Babesia gibsoni Infections in Dogs

Abstract

This report examines the effectiveness of clindamycin for the treatment of babesiosis in dogs (n=10) experimentally infected with Babesia gibsoni (B. gibsoni). Clindamycin (25 mg/kg body weight, per os, q 12 hours for 14 days) gradually reduced parasitemia levels and induced morphological changes that indicated degeneration of parasites (e.g., segmentation; size reduction; localization in the cell limbic and/or torn state of the nucleus; and swelling, decrease, or disappearance of the cytoplasm) in the majority of dogs. Clindamycin treatment reduced the clinical symptoms characteristic of Babesia infection, including anemia, anorexia, and listlessness. Clindamycin might be useful as a medicine for treatment of B. gibsoni infection.

A Possible Treatment Strategy and Clinical Factors to Estimate the Treatment Response in Bebesia gibsoni Infection

“…B. gibsoni infected dogs are generally seen in the west of Japan and dogs affected by B. canis are mainly observed on Okinawa island. However, the incidence of canine babesiosis, especially B. gibsoni infection, has been recently reported to be increasing, and the areas affected are expanding towards the northeastern part of Japan [15,17,27]. Clinical symptoms of canine babesiosis include anorexia, depression and exercise intolerance as a result of hemolytic anemia.…”

“…However, a recent report showed the possible induction of drug resistant mutants of B. gibsoni against this treatment protocol [14,16]. Another candidate for anti-babesia therapy, clindamycin has also been evaluated in the fields of medicine and veterinary medicine [6,[24][25][26][27]. Clindamycin is one of the lincomycin antibiotics which has been shown to be effective against human babesiosis [25][26][27].…”

“…Another candidate for anti-babesia therapy, clindamycin has also been evaluated in the fields of medicine and veterinary medicine [6,[24][25][26][27]. Clindamycin is one of the lincomycin antibiotics which has been shown to be effective against human babesiosis [25][26][27]. However, it is suggested that treatment with clindamycin alone is not enough to eliminate the clinical symptoms and babesia in blood [25][26][27].…”

“…Clindamycin is one of the lincomycin antibiotics which has been shown to be effective against human babesiosis [25][26][27]. However, it is suggested that treatment with clindamycin alone is not enough to eliminate the clinical symptoms and babesia in blood [25][26][27]. Therefore other therapies, in addition to clindamycin, will be necessary to obtain a satisfactory anti-babesia effect.…”

“…Even though the combination therapy was terminated at 193 days PI, this dog never showed any signs of babesiosis by 662 days PI. To establish a new therapeutic strategy against B. gibsoni infection, we evaluated the effectiveness of a combination therapy with clindamycin, metronidazole and doxycycline, which were reported to be useful for canine, human and mouse babesioses [9,[23][24][25][26][27]. As shown in Fig.…”