Clinical and laboratorial profile of canine anine monocytic onocytic ehrlichiosis hrlichiosis of dogs from Salvador and metropolitan region of Bahia State State, Brazil

Abstract

Canine Ehrlichiosis despite its high morbidy is an illness of great importance in the medical clinic of small animals. The great difficulty for the definitive diagnosis of this disease consists of the little use of more sensible and specific tests considering the clinical signals and more frequent hematological results as exclusive of the illness. This research aimed to provide the clinical-laboratorial profile in the diagnosis of canine ehrlichiosis of 75 dogs, of both sexes, at different ages and races, from Salvador and metropolitan region, Bahia state. The evaluated animals were dogs with clinical suspicion of Ehrlichiosis and tick infestation or description of previous exposition to that vector. Antibodies anti- E. canis were found in 98.66% (74/75) of the animals. The PCR was positive in 33.3% (25/75) of the dogs, while the presence of inclusions (morulae) was observed in 5.33% (4/75) of the suspected animals. Fever, dehydration, pale mucous membranes, petechiae of skin and mucous membranes; and anemia, leucopoenia, neutropenia, eosinopenia, lymphopenia, and thrombocytopenia were the most significant (p<0.05) clinical and laboratory indicators found in animals with positive PCR.