engleski

Clinical and pathofogical study in canine visceral leishmaniasis: natural and experimental infection

Canine leishmaniasis is a severe, often fatal, systemic disease of the dog, caused by the protozoan parasite Leishmania infantum. The disease is endemic in Mediterranean countries including Southern Croatia. It is well known that the dog, apart from suffering the disease itself, is the principal reservoir of the disease. In the dog as in other hosts leishmaniads multiply inside macrophages causing chronic inflammatory processes .The purpose ofthe study reported here was to compare the fndings of the clinical aspects of the disease and the clinical pathology in naturally and experimentally infected dogs with a field strain of Leishmania infantum. The special aim was also to define the virulence and pathogenicity of the same strain in dogs. In order to def ne the clinical aspect of the natural infection, three dogs were hospitalized and thoroughly examined during the period of 1month or up to the death. Among naturally infected dogs, different dermatologic patterns were found like symetric alopecia, scaling and ulcerative dermatosis beside cachexia and parakeratosis. According to the experimental design, a group of six dogs was inoculated with parasites and the infection lasted for 120 days. Samples were obtained from dogs prior to infection and at weekly intervals for complete blood count and serum chemical analyses. Significant changes in rectal temperatures and body weights were not observed between infected and control animals over a 12 week period. All dogs developed a persistent infection in the period of eight weeks The systemic infection was defined by the parasitological findings of parasites in lymph node biopsies. Infected dogs, also developed signifcantly altered hematological values consisting of mild anemia and moderate leukopenia. Beside mentioned, other clinical signs were not found until the end of the experimental period.The lack of full-blown (eishmaniasis in the infected dogs is probably related to the chronic nature of the disease in which long incubation periods are ratherthe rule. It is not clearwhy in some dogs, clinical signs ofthe disease are poorly manifested and in other dogs, the disease is fatal.

leishmaniasis; dog

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