CLINICO-BIOCHEMICAL AND MOLECULAR INVESTIGATIONS OF HAEMOLYTIC ANAEMIA IN DOGS
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Date
2022-01-01
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COLLEGE OF VETERINARY AND ANIMAL SCIENCES THRISSUR, KERALA
Abstract
Haemolytic anaemia is a cause of concern in all breeds of dogs. Dogs
brought to the University Veterinary Hospitals at Mannuthy and Kokkala in
Thrissur district were screened for haemolytic anaemia. One hundred and one dogs
with haemolytic anaemia were subjected to detailed clinical, biochemical, and
molecular investigation. The primary reasons for haemolysis were blood parasites,
oxidative injury, and micro-angiopathic haemolytic anaemia and these causative
factors occurred as single-etiology or multi-etiology cases. Among the blood
parasites, Babesia gibsoni was the major reason for haemolysis followed by
Babesia canis vogeli and Ehrlichia canis. Trypanosoma evansi and Anaplasma
platys appeared as co-infection in a few cases. Other minor reasons for haemolysis
were immune-mediated haemolytic anaemia, stomatocytosis, and an unidentified
bacterial organism. Thrombocytopenia was a consistent finding in all haemolytic
cases. Eighty-one per cent of dogs with haemolytic anaemia were non-regenerative.
Serum phosphorus, total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol were not significantly
different from the healthy controls at p<.05 and did not appear to influence
erythrocyte membrane stability as determined by erythrocyte osmotic fragility test
and erythrocyte sodium dodecyl stability test. The values of erythrocyte
malondialdehyde, reduced glutathione and glutathione peroxidase were not
significantly (p<.05) different from the healthy controls. The major erythrocyte
morphological abnormalities identified were anisocytosis, microcytosis,
hypochromasia, schistocytes, and blister cells. Genotyping of the pre-documented
mutations in erythrocyte pyruvate kinase gene, phosphofructokinase gene, α spectrin and β-spectrin genes did not reveal any mutation. To conclude, the major
reasons for haemolytic anaemia in dogs were blood parasites, oxidative injury, and
microangiopathic haemolytic anaemia, whereas the minor reasons were IMHA,
stomatocytosis and bacterial infection. Anti-rabies and multi-component
vaccinations, deworming, serum phosphorus, total cholesterol and serum LDL cholesterol did not increase fragility of erythrocytes. The pre-documented gene
mutations in erythrocyte pyruvate kinase enzyme, erythrocyte phosphofructokinase
enzyme, α-spectrin and β-spectrin proteins were not detected in this study.
Description
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Clinical Veterinary Medicine