Re-emergence of Babesia conradae and effective treatment of infected dogs with atovaquone and azithromycin

Babesia conradaeinfection in coyote hunting dogs infected with multiple blood‐borne pathogens

“…However, platelet counts in the case dogs were often not sufficiently low to explain the spontaneous bleeding observed in these dogs (median 96 000 platelets/μL, interquartile range 73 000–163 000 platelets/μL). Only 2 dogs had platelet counts lower than 30 000/μL, corroborating previous reports, which have shown only mild to moderate thrombocytopenia in spite of sometimes significant bleeding diatheses 1, 7. A platelet function defect might also explain the hemorrhagic tendencies observed.…”

“…In our case‐control study we attempted to provide a more comprehensive clinical picture of infection with B. conradae in dogs including hematologic, biochemical and thorough infectious disease testing. In our study, similar to findings from previous smaller studies, dogs testing positive for B. conradae were more likely to be anemic and had lower median hematocrits than control dogs 1, 7, 18. Reticulocyte counts were not routinely performed as part of the present study, but dogs that tested positive for B. conradae were more likely to have a macrocytic, hypochromic anemia with an increased red cell distribution width, suggestive of a regenerative anemia.…”

“…Our long‐term monitoring of B. conradae infections in 2 dog kennels and similar reports suggest that babesiosis caused by this piroplasm is an under‐recognized disease 7, 8. In our study, we examined dogs from 2 kennels in the south‐central valley of California and B. conradae infection was identified in 29 dogs over 6 years.…”

“…The epidemiology of B. conradae transmission is still not fully understood; although the organism was found in the salivary glands of Rhipicephalus sanguineus ticks, attempts to transmit infection using ticks were unsuccessful 4. Vertical transmission has been proposed, as is seen in other canine babesial infections,5, 6 and a recent case series supported this as 8 dogs were descendants of a single infected dog 7. In one study, hemolytic anemia was described in 12 affected companion dogs from Los Angeles County and dogs were successfully treated with atovaquone and azithromycin.…”

Peculiarities of Dog Babesiosis Distribution in Kyiv City

“…In the investigated blood smears, the degree of parasitaemia was determined, i. e. the ratio of the number of erythrocytes aff ected by Babesia to the total number of counted cells (not less than 100 cells), expressed as a percentage. Th e agents of babesiosis were identifi ed based on their morphological characteristics, using parasitological atlases and identifi cation keys (Cicco, Birkenheuer, 2012;Kapustin, 1955;Krylov, 1996). In each case, we examined at least 200 fi elds of view of the microscope.…”