A total of 374 dogs, 252 from five military kennels and 122 privately owned, were tested for Ehrlichia canis antibody.
Sera were tested at a 1:20 dilution by indirect fluorescent antibody with the use of E. canis cell-culture antigen slides.
The overall prevalence of E. canis antibody was 33%. Antibody prevalence among military dogs (29 %) was
significantly lower than among privately owned dogs (41 %; P < 0,05) . The E. canis seroprevalence among dogs
infested with ticks (Rhipicephalus sanguineus) was higher (44 %) than that among uninfested dogs (31 %; P = 0,08) .
The seroprevalence among military dogs varied from 21-46% at the five kennels; lower prevalences were observed
in kennels with higher sanitary and hygienic conditions. Age- and sex-related E. canis antibody prevalences were
not significantly different among military and privately owned dogs, although adult and male privately owned dogs
had the highest seroprevalences (45% and 44 %, respectively). Three dogs with epistaxis had E. canis antibody
titres > 1:320. These data demonstrate the first laboratory evidence of E. canis infection among dogs in Egypt.The articles have been scanned in colour with a HP Scanjet 5590; 600dpi. 
Adobe Acrobat XI Pro was used to OCR the text and also for the merging and conversion to the final presentation PDF-format.Naval Medical Research and Development Command, NMC, NCR, Bethesda,
MD.mn201

Arthur, R.R.

Botros, B.A.M.

Calamaio, C.A.

Dasch, G.A.

Elmolla, M.S.

Salib, A.W.

The articles have been scanned in colour with a HP Scanjet 5590; 600dpi. 
Adobe Acrobat XI Pro was used to OCR the text and also for the merging and conversion to the final presentation PDF-format.A total of 374 dogs, 252 from five military kennels and 122 privately owned, were tested for Ehrlichia canis antibody.
Sera were tested at a 1:20 dilution by indirect fluorescent antibody with the use of E. canis cell-culture antigen slides.
The overall prevalence of E. canis antibody was 33%. Antibody prevalence among military dogs (29 %) was
significantly lower than among privately owned dogs (41 %; P < 0,05) . The E. canis seroprevalence among dogs
infested with ticks (Rhipicephalus sanguineus) was higher (44 %) than that among uninfested dogs (31 %; P = 0,08) .
The seroprevalence among military dogs varied from 21-46% at the five kennels; lower prevalences were observed
in kennels with higher sanitary and hygienic conditions. Age- and sex-related E. canis antibody prevalences were
not significantly different among military and privately owned dogs, although adult and male privately owned dogs
had the highest seroprevalences (45% and 44 %, respectively). Three dogs with epistaxis had E. canis antibody
titres > 1:320. These data demonstrate the first laboratory evidence of E. canis infection among dogs in Egypt.Naval Medical Research and Development Command, NMC, NCR, Bethesda,
MD.mn201

UPSpace at the University of Pretoria

Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research , 62:41--43 (1995) Canine ehrlichiosis in Egypt: Sere-epidemiological survey B.A.M. BOTROS1, M.S. ELMOLLA2, A.W. SALIB1, C.A. CALAMAI01, G.A. DASCH3 and R.R. ARTHUR1A ABSTRACT BOTROS, BAM., ELMOLLA, M.S. , SALIB, A.W., CALAMAIO, C.A., DASCH, G.A. & ARTHUR, R.R. 1995. Canine ehrlichiosis in Egypt: Sere-epidemiological survey. Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research, 62:41--43 A total of 374 dogs, 252 from five military kennels and 122 privately owned, were tested for Ehrlichia canis antibody. Sera were tested at a 1:20 dilution by indirect fluorescent antibody with the use of E. canis cell-culture antigen slides. The overall prevalence of E. canis antibody was 33%. Antibody prevalence among military dogs (29 %) was significantly lower than among privately owned dogs (41 %; P < 0,05) . The E. canis seroprevalence among dogs infested with ticks (Rhipicephalus sanguineus) was higher (44 %) than that among uninfested dogs (31 %; P = 0,08) . The seroprevalence among military dogs varied from 21--46% at the five kennels; lower prevalences were observed in kennels with higher sanitary and hygienic conditions. Age- and sex-related E. canis antibody prevalences were not significantly different among military and privately owned dogs, although adult and male privately owned dogs had the highest seroprevalences (45 % and 44 %, respectively). Three dogs with epistaxis had E. canis antibody titres > 1 :320. These data demonstrate the first laboratory evidence of E. canis infection among dogs in Egypt. Keywords: Ehrlichia, dogs, Egypt, sere-epidemiological survey INTRODUCTION Tropical canine pancytopenia (TCP) or canine ehrlich-iosis is a tick-borne haemorrhagic disease of dogs caused by the rickettsial organism, Ehrlichia canis. The disease is transmitted by the brown dog tick Rhi-picephalus sanguineus (Groves, Dennis, Amyx & Hux-soll1975), and is known to occur in Africa, south-east Asia, and the USA. In Africa, the disease was first re-cognized in Algeria (Donatien & Lestoquard 1935) and later reported in Tunisia (Sobin, Chabassol, De Brux, Fiehrer, Guillot, Michel & Pigoury 1962). The rate of 1 US Naval Medical Research Unit No. 3, Cairo, Egypt 2 Police Academy Cairo, Egypt 3 Naval Medical Research Institute, Bethesda, Maryland, USA 4 Johns Hopkins University, School of Hygiene and Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA Accepted for publication 2 February 1995-Editor infection is especially high in tropical zones (up to 30%) , and was reported in Puerto Rico (Huxsoll , Hild-brandt, Nims, Ferguson & Walker 1969) , the Middle East (Seamer & Snape 1970), and East Africa (Kamin-jalo, Nyindo, Sayer, Rurangir, Johnson, Hird, Rosen-baum, Maxie & Ogaa 1976). Recently, 34 of 68 (50 %) military dogs from Tunisia, Senegal and Chad were found positive for E. canis antibody (Brouqui , Davoust, Haddad, Vidor, Raoult 1991). Clinically, the most overt sign of the disease is uni-lateral or bilateral epistaxis (Ewing 1969; Walker, Rundquist, Taylor, Wilson, Andrews, Barek, Hogge, Huxsoll, Hildbrandt & Nims 1970) . Death often occurs 5-7 dafter epistaxis. Dogs with TCP usually have a history of a febrile episode two or more months before the onset of epistaxis. Following the febrile episode, the dog may appear normal, but pancytopenia persists and animals become severely debilitated. Death may also be attributed to internal hemorrhages. Dogs that 41 Canine ehrlichiosis in Egypt survive the episode usually remain carriers of the or-ganism for several months and develop antibodies, but are susceptible to reinfection (Weisiger, Ristic & Hux-soll1975) . In the German shepherd, immunosuppres-sion has been observed, with E. canis infection caus-ing serious impact on their efficiency (Nyindo, Huxsoll , Ristic, Kakoma, Brown, Carson & Stephenson 1980). In Egypt, this disease has not been previously report-ed . However, epistaxis which is a clinical sign sug-gestive of this disease, has been recognized among German shepherd dogs in military units (Botros, un-published data 1992). Also, the tick species (Rhipi-cephalus sanguineus) responsible for transmission is quite common in this geographic area (Morel & Vas-siliades 1963). Human infection with E. canis or a closely related organism was first described in the USA by Maeda, Markowitz, Harvley, Ristic, Cox & Mc-dade (1987) . However, genetic-sequence-comparison studies have recently indicated that the agent of hu-man ehrlichiosis, while closely related to E. canis, is a new species and has been named Ehrlichia chaf-feensis . (Anderson, Dawson, Jones & Wilson 1991) . The purpose of this study was to survey dogs, pri -vately owned as well as military working dogs, for evi-dence of exposure to E. canis. MATERIAL AND METHODS Samples from military working dogs were collected during the period December 1991 to June 1992, at five locations: War Dogs Unit in Almaza, about 5 km east of Cairo, (n = 35) ; Presidential Guards Dog Unit in Cairo (n = 14); the Police Academy in Cairo (n = 109); Transportation and Railway Police Unit in Cairo (n = 74) ; and Transportation and Railway Police Unit in Alexandria (n = 20) . All the dogs at these units were included in the study. Samples from privately owned household dogs (n = 122) were collected at the Peo-ples' Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA) , where dogs were brought from various parts of Cairo for treatment or for boarding . Samples were obtained from all the dogs presented to the hospital on a randomly selected day, weekly, during April , May and June 1992. Age, sex, breed, signs of disease, infestation with ticks and history of epistaxis were recorded at the time of sample collection . Blood was drawn by venipuncture and serum was separated and stored at - 20 · C. Se-rum from 11 dog caretakers who had worked at the PDSA for more than 5 years were submitted for E. ca-nis antibody testing . Sera were tested at 1 :20 dilution by standard two-step IFA test (Ristic, Huxsoll, Weisiger, Hildbrandt & Nyindo 1972) . E. canis cell-culture antigen on 8-well slides (ProtaTek International , Inc. St. Paul , MN) was used. Negative and positive control E. canis sera were in-cluded with each test. 42 RESULTS A total of 37 4 military and privately owned dogs of both sexes and various ages were enrolled in this study. The results are summarized in Table 1. The majority (88%) of military dogs (n = 252) were of the German shepherd breed while privately owned dogs (n = 122) were of various breeds. Among the military working dogs, 202 (80 %) were males and 50 (20 %), females. Ninety-six per cent were adults older than one year; the average age was 4,2 years. The overall prevalence of E. canis antibody among military dogs was 29%, with a similar figure in young and adult animals. Prevalence among males was not significantly different from females (Table 1 ). Prevalence was highest (46%) among war dogs, fol-lowed by transportation police dogs in Alexandria (35 %) , police academy dogs (28 %), transportation police dogs in Cairo (23 %) and presidential guard dogs (21 %) . Of the privately owned dogs, 70 (57 %) dogs were males and 52 (43%) , females. Sixty-six per cent were adults · the average age was 3,5 years. The overall preval~nce of E. canis antibody among privately owned dogs was 41 %. There were no statistically sig-nificant differences between young and adult animals, nor between males and females (Table 1) . Overall, antibody prevalence among privately own~? dogs (41 %) was significantly higher than among mili-tary dogs (29 %, P < 0,05) and significantly higher among adults and males (45% v 29% and 44% v 30%, respectively) . Of the total number of dogs tested for E. canis antibody, 54 dogs (14 %) were infested with R. sanguineus ticks. Forty-four per cent (24/54) of tick-infested dogs, as compared to 31% (1 00/320) TABLE 1 Relationship of age, sex and tick infestation to preva-lence of Ehrlichia canis antibody in military working and privately owned dog populations in Egypt Risk group Military working Privately owned category dogs dogs No. pos./ No. pos./ No. tested (%) No. tested(%) Young (age ~ 1 year) 3/10 (30) 14/42 (33) Adult (age > 1 year) 71 /242 (29) 36/80 (45) * Male 60/202 (30) 31 /70 (44) ** Female 14/50 (28) 19/52 (37) Tick-infested 1/1 (100) 23/53 (43) Tick-uninfested 73/251 (29) 27/69 (39) All dogs 74/252 (29) 50/122 (41) *** * p < 0,05 (Chi-square test) for the difference in the number of E. canis-seropositive adult dogs between military dogs (71 of 242) and privately owned dogs (36 of 80) ** p < 0,05 (Chi-square test) for the difference in the number of E. canis-seropositive male dogs between military dogs (60 of 202) and privately owned dogs (31 of 70) *** p < 0,05 (Chi-square test) for the difference in the number of E. canis-seropositive animals between military dogs (74 of 252) and privately owned dogs (50 of 122) of uninfested dogs, were positive for E. canis antibody (Table 1) , but the difference is not statistically signifi-cant (P = 0,08) . Three dogs had epistaxis or a history of epistaxis shortly before sample collection, and all were E. canis-seropositive with antibody titres that ex-ceeded 1 :320. Serum samples collected from the 11 dog caretakers were all antibody-negative to E. canis. DISCUSSION The lower E. canis antibody prevalence among military dogs, as compared to privately owned dogs, could be attributed to better housing conditions and to the regu-lar use of acaricides. Only one of all the military dogs tested, was infested with ticks. Prevalence differences at the various military kennels appeared to correlate with the sanitary conditions at each location. Age- and sex-related prevalence differences within the two dog groups were not significantly different, although pri-vately owned adult and male dogs had the highest prevalences, significantly higher than military adult and male dogs (P < 0,05). Although only three of the dogs studied had epistaxis or a history of epistaxis, all were E. canis positive . Epi-staxis is reported as a classic clinical sign of E. canis infection (Ewing 1969; Walker eta/. 1970). Negative E. canis antibody results obtained on the se-rum samples from the dog caretakers are consistent with previous evidence that E. canis is not a human pathogen (Anderson eta/. 1991) and that dogs are not a reservoir of human ehrlichiosis. In summary, data from this study demonstrated the first laboratory evi-dence of E. canis infection among dog populations in Egypt. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This work was supported by the Naval Medical Re-search and Development Command, NMC, NCR, Be-thesda, MD, Work Unit No. 001 01 .ETX.341 0. The opinions and assertions contained here are the private ones of the authors and are not to be construed as of-ficial or as reflecting the views of the Navy Department, Department of Defense, the US Government, or the Egyptian Government. In conducting the research described in this report, the investigators complied with the USDA, implementing instructions of the Animal Welfare Act (9CFR, subchapter A, Parts 1- 3) and ad-hered to the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals prepared by the Institute of Laboratory Animal Resources for the National Institute of Health. Address correspondence and proofs to: Commanding Officer Naval Medical Research Unit No. 3 (Attn: Code 101 F) PSC 452 Box 5000 FPO AE 09835-0007 B.A.M. BOTROS et at. Address requests for reprints to : Research Publications Branch Naval Medical Research Unit No. 3 (Attn: Code 101 F) PSC 452 Box 5000 FPO AE 09835-0007 REFERENCES ANDERSON, B.E., DAWSON, J.E., JONES, D.C. & WILSON , K.H. 1991 . Ehrtichia chaffeensis , a new species associated with hu-man ehrlichiosis. Journal of Clinical Microbiology, 29:2838-2842. SOBIN, A. , CHABASSOL, C., DE BRUX, J ., FIEHRER , A. , GUIL-LOT, G., MICHEL, C. & PIGOURY, L. 1962. Syndrome hemor-rhagique thrombotique thrombocytopenique du chien en Tunisie . Revue Pathologie Generate, 62:317- 334. BROUQUI, P., DAVOUST, B. , HADDAD, S. , VIDOR, E. & RAOULT, D. 1991 . Serological evaluation of Ehrlichia canis infections in military dogs in Africa and Reunion Island. Veterinary Microbi-ology, 26:103-105. DONATIEN , A. & LESTOQUARD, F. 1935. Existence en Algerie d'une rickettsia du chien. Bulletin de Ia Societe de Pathologie Exo-tique, 28:418-419. EWING, S.A. 1969. Canine ehrlichiosis , in Advances in Veterinary Science and Comparative Medicine. 13, edited by C.A. Brandly & C. E. Cornelius. Academic Press : New York, N.Y. : 331 - 353. GROVES , M.G., DENNIS, G.L., AMYX , H.L. & HUXSOLL, D.L. 1975. Transmission of Ehrlichia canis to dogs by ticks . American Journal Veterinary Research, 36:937- 940. HUXSOLL, D.L. , HILDEBRANDT, P.K., NIMS, R.M., FERGUSON , J.A. & WALKER, J.S. 1969. Ehrlichia canis the causative agent of a hemorrhagic disease of dogs? Veterinary Record, 85:587. KAMINJALO, J.S. (Jr) , NYINDO, M.B.A. , SAYER, P.O., RURAN -GIR , W .F., JOHNSON, L.W. , HIRD, S.F. , ROSENBAUM, E., MAXIE, L.S. & OGAA, J.S. 1976. Identification of Ehrlichia canis in East Africa. Veterinary Record, 99:434-435. MAEDA, K., MARKOWITZ, N., HARVLEY, R.C., RISTIC, M. , COX, D. & MCDADE, J.E. 1987. Human infection with Ehrtichia canis , a leukocytic rickettsia. The New England Journal of Medicine, 316:853- 856. MOREL, P.C. & VASSILIADES, G. 1963. Les Rhipicephalus du groupe sanguineus: especes africianes (Acariens, Ixodoidea). Revue d'Eievage et de Medecine Veterinaire des Pays Tropicaux, 15:343- 386. NYINDO, M., HUXSOLL, D.L., RISTIC, M. , KAKOMA, 1. , BROWN , J .L. , CARSON, C.A. & STEPHENSON, E. H. 1980. Cell-mediated and humoral immune responses of German shepherd dogs and beagles to experimental injection with Ehrlichia canis. American Journal Veterinary Research, 41 :250-253 . RISTIC, M., HUXSOLL, D.L. , WEISIGER, R.M., HILDBRANDT, P .K. & NYINDO, M.B.A. 1972. Serological diagnosis of tropical canine pancytopenia by indirect immunofluorescence. Infection and Im-munity, 6:226-231. SEAMER, J. & SNAPE, T. 1970. Tropical canine pancytopenia and Ehrlichia canis infection . Veterinary Record, 86:375. WALKER, J .S., RUNDQUIST, J.D., TAYLOR, R., WILSON, B.L., ANDREWS, M.R., BAREK, J ., HOGGE, A.L. (Jr) HUXSOLL, D.L., HILDEBRANDT, P.K. , & NIMS, R.M. 1970. Clinical and clin-icopathologic findings in tropical canine pancytopenia. Journal American Veterinary Medical Association, 157:43- 55. WEISIGER, R.M., RISTIC, M. & HUXSOLL, D.L. 1975. Kinetics of antibody response to Ehrlichia canis assayed by the indirect fluorescent antibody method. American Journal of Veterinary Re-search, 36:689-693. 43 

Canine ehrlichiosis in Egypt: sero-epidemiological survey

https://repository.up.ac.za/bitstream/2263/22266/1/6botros1995.pdf

Canine ehrlichiosis in Egypt: sero-epidemiological survey

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

UPSpace at the University of Pretoria