EFFICACY OF ANTI-BABESIA DRUGS IN RELATION TO HEMATOLOGICAL PARAMETERS IN DOGS - M. Tayyub; K. Ashraf; M. Lateef; A. A. Anjum; M. A. Ali; M. Nawaz; M. M. Nazir; S. Naz; N. Ahmad (Journal of Animal and Plant Sciences, 2020)
Canine babesiosis is characterized by progressive anemia, fever, thrombocytopenia and marked splenomegaly. Different drugs are used for treatment and eradication of canine babesiosis. Present study was conducted to determine efficacy of anti-Babesia drugs and their effect on blood parameters in pet dogs. For this purpose, 30 naturally infected dogs confirmed by PCR were randomly divided into three experimental groups (A, B and C) and ten healthy dogs as control group (D). The dogs of groups A, B and C were treated with imizole (1mL/10Kg), vibramycin (100mg/10Kg) and imizole plus vibramycin, respectively. Blood profile of all the dogs was also recorded before and after treatment for comparison. After 21 days of treatment, maximum recovery (90%) was recorded in group C followed by group A (77%) and B (62.5%), respectively. The level of Hb, PCV, TEC, TLC, glucose, globulin, total protein and neutrophil was less in infected dogs in comparison to healthy dogs, while the level of lymphocytes, eosinophil, monocytes, SGPT and BUN were higher in infected dogs. The PCV returned to normal (39.97±2.12) in group C dogs in relation to group D (40.51±0.96). However, these values were lower (p≤0.01) in group A (38.43±2.08) and B (37.12±2.79). Similar pattern was observed for other parameters such as neutrophil, eosinophil, lymphocytes and hemoglobin value. Babesia specific amplification (339 bp) was successful for infected dogs. It was concluded that combination of imizole and vibramycin was better option for treatment of pet dogs suffering from babesiosis and restores blood parameters to normal after 21 days.
Keywords: journal article; Babesiosis; Pet dogs; Imizole; Vibramycin; Blood profile