HAEMOPROTOZOAN OF DAIRY ANIMALS

HAEMOPROTOZOAN OF DAIRY ANIMALS

(Laboratory diagnosis a tool for better diagnosis)

Dr Parvinder Kaur Lubana

Veterinary officer (NRDDL,Jalandhar ,Punjab

parvinder.lubana@yahoo.com (9814652576)

 

This article is beneficial for both veterinarian and for livestock owners, because if farmer can judge the abnormalities in behaviour of animal, only then he/she will be able to recognise the sick animal and be able to call the doctor for treatment. And I will tell very practical clinical signs in different species of dairy animals for veterinarian by seeing those clinical signs he/she can collect the blood sample for laboratory diagnosis, and be able to give some first aid until the lab report is not received.

Article is on haemoprotozoan(blood parasites) of dairy animals (cow, &buffalo ) .

These are of two types

• Intra-erythrocytic ,or live in RBC’S egAnaplasma ,Theileria or Babesia .
• Extra-erythrocytic or live outside the RBC’S eg

 

Transmission:Also known as tick born diseases, haemoparasites are transmitted from one animal to other animals through ticks, flies. Also transmitted mechanically by blood transfusion, infected surgical instruments or when we do not change the needle during vaccination.

Clinical signs: These haemoprotozoandiseases are seasonal; commonlyaffect the animals in warm and humid weather when there is lot of tick population.

Common clinical sign which are present in all hemoprotozoan1). High fever 2). Anaemia 3). History of ticks on animal body.

Apart from common clinical signs there are certain specific signs of each haemoprotozoan disease

Intra- erythrocytic haemoprotozoan

Anaplasmosis :  also know as gall sickness caused by Anaplasmamarginale (more pathogenic ) and Anaplasmacentrale (less pathogenic ). The clinical signs are usually very mild in calves below 6 month of age,cattleupto 3 years develop typical and fatal disease ,above 3 years disease is per acute and more fatal   ,  infected cattle became carrier of anaplasmosis but are generally immune for further infection .( Handbook on Infectious  Animal Diseases  Shukriti Sharma ,Vishal Mahajan&Kulbir Singh Sandhu 2008 Edition page no 103 )

Very typical clinical signs of Anaplasmosis are :

1) Difficulty in breathing due to exertion, mild coughing and there is open mouth breathing, this is due to anaemia.

• All mucous membranes become pale or yellow rather than healthy pink, we can check from eyes and vulva mucousmembrane.
• Constipated faeces due to intestinal stasis and the faeces are coated with mucous.
• Staggering gait of animal
• Fever is recurrent (it is not throughout the day), either in the morning or in the evening with rapid bounding pulse.

 

Post mortem lesion or findings: when we open the body of dead animal there is jaundiced appearance of all visceral organs, enlarged gall bladder, and fatty liver.

Babesiosis or Red water disease

It is vector born disease .Major vector for Babesiabigemina is Rihipicephalusmicroplus .Haemoprotozoanare pearshaped piroplasm joined at acute angle and presentin the RBC’S.

Clinical signs:  Apart from high fever and anaemia there is destructionof large number erythrocytes by piroplasm of Babesiaresulting in haemoglobinemia and consequently haemoglobinuria,increased respiratory rate,may be diarrhoea or constipation pregnant animal my abort  and death due the heavy loss of blood .

Post mortem lesions or findings:Most diagnostic lesion is urinary bladder filled with coffee coloured urine, gall bladder filled with thick granular bile.

Theileriasis in dairy animals: — It is also a tick born disease of cattle characterised by high fever and anaemia .Theileriaanulata and Theileriaparva are two organism causing disease.Theileriaovis is causing Theileriasisin  goats . Theileriasisis mainly disease of exoticcattle.

Transmission:–Rhipicephalus spp. of tick is responsible for transmission of disease from one animal to other animal. The mechanical transmission is not of much importance. After the bite the schizoints move into the lymphocytes and cause lymphadenopathy and then piroplasm of Theileria in erythrocytes.

Clinical signs: — Lymphadenopathy, (inflammation of parotid lymph node in calves along with lacrimation, if not taken care leads to corneal opacity,and there is diarrhoea having blood .

Inflammation of pre scapular and pre femoral lymph node along with diarrhoea having blood in adult animals isvery typical clinical sign of subclinical Theileriasis. There is difficult respiration in animals (this is due to cystic mediastinal lymph node located in between the lung lobes)

In clinical Theileriasisthere is fever and anaemia, recumbency followed by death .There is cerebral form of Theileriasisin which animals exhibit circular movements, head pressing, salivation.

Post-mortem lesions and findings: – very clear sign is cystic mediastinal lymph node and punched necrotic ulcers in the abomasum.

Extra erythrocytic protozoan

Trypanosomasis :-It is also a vector born disease of dairy animals .Caused by Trypanosome evansi. Protozoan is present outside the RBC’S. Incidence of trypanosomiasis is high in rainy season due to large number of biting flies.

Transmission:-Trypanosomaevansi is transmitted by biting flies/Tabanus/Glossinaflies.

Clinical signs:–In per acute form of disease animal dies after showing convulsions. ( this is because of hypoglycaemia ) high fever ,normocytic normochromic anaemia due to destruction of erythrocytes by flagellar action of parasites(Handbook of infectious animal  diseases  by Shukriti Sharma ,Vishal Mahajan and K.S Sandhu 2008 edition page no 273 ), head pressing , intermittent fever ,gazing of eyes, frequent micturition, corneal opacity unilateral or bilateral ,staggering gate and circling movement ,wasting of muscles .

Post-mortem lesions and findings:-all organs are anaemic, serous fluid in pericardial sac and abdominal cavity.

Diagnosis of haemoprotozoan diseases :–Diagnosis of haemoprotozan diseases is based on clinical signs and laboratory diagnosis

Clinical signs	Disease	Laboratory diagnosis
Anaemia ,recurrent fever ,jaundice like condition ,difficult respiration on exertion ,intestinal stasis ,staggering gait etc	Anaplasmosis	Under microscope solid dots of anaplasmamarginale on the margin of the RBC ‘S, there is lymphocytosis with Eiosinophelia.CBC shows decrease in haemoglobin, lowRBC’S count.
Coffee coloured urine ,high fever ,high degree of anaemia	Babesiosis	Pear shaped organismsBabesiabigeminainRBC’S which are joined at acute angle. CBC shows, low haemoglobin and lymphocytosis withEiosiniphelia.
Initially only inflamed lymph nodes, lacrimation and diarrhoea having blood. Later on there is fever, difficultrespiration, nervous signs like head pressing and circling movement.	Sub clinical Theileriasis and clinical Theileriasis	In sub clinical form there is koch’s blue bodies in lymphocytes (lymph node aspirate) .In clinical Theileriasis there arepiroplasmsThrileriaanulata in RBC’S (signet ring like ) CBC shows low haemoglobin in clinical Theileriasis,lymphocytosis and Eiosinophelia.
High fever, head pressing, wide open eyes, paralysis of upper eye lid, hides bound condition.	Trypanosomiasis	Tryps are present extracellularly .There is normochromic noromocyticanaemia, there is hypoglycaemia in blood.

 

 

Trypanosoma evensi in cow blood    Babesia bigemina ( pear shaped organisms

 

Koch’s blue bodies in lymphocytes        RBC’S having piroplasm of Theileriaanulata

Anaplasma marginal (solid dots at the margin of RBC)

Precautions while collecting samples for laboratory diagnosis

1. Always collect blood sample when there is fever.
2. In case of Trypanosomias is always give dextrose saline to animal solution before collecting the sample, and collect blood from ear vein .
3. For the diagnosis of Theileriasis collect lymph node aspirate ( hold the lymph node ,inject 4-5 ml of normal saline solution ,do not withdraw the needle ,just massage the lymph node and try to retract back the injected saline solution. Make on the spot smear of this lymph node aspirate, dry it and fix it with methanol. Or you can send aspirate in syringe as early as possible to laboratory.
4. Send blood in EDTA vacutanior. Try to send as early as possible.

Few tips for laboratory person

1. Mix the blood before making smear.
2. Try to make very thin smear.
3. Always airs dry the blood smear.
4. Fix the slide properly.
5. Use distilled water for diluting Giemsastain .
6. Field A & Field B stain are very good for staining slides for haemoprotozoan .

Procedure of making slide and staining of slides with feild stain

Take a small drop of blood ,put on grease free slide ,make thin smear ,dry in air ,put leishman’s stain for 1 min,wash the slide,put feild B stain for 30 sec.,wash with water,put feild A stain for 1 min. Wash with water and dry in air . Examine the slide under 100x power of microscope .

Diffrential diagnosis  1. From all diseases having high fever and anaemia .

2. When there are nervous signs in case of Theileriasis ,we should not confuse it with trypanosomiasis,confirmation by blood smear examination .
3. Respiratory signs in Theileriasis should not be confuse with Heamorrhagic septicaemia.

After checking slide or after checking CBC it is very clear that there is anaemia with lymphocytocis in theileriasis but in case of H.S. there is neutrophelia .

4. In Babesisosis haemoglobin urea , check the history of parturation(postparturient haemoglobinurea ,respond to phosphorus therapy) and braken fern poisoning( history of ingestion of fern ) ,leptospirosis confermation by PCR .

Treatment : -It is strongly recommended to all farmers ,paravets and veterinarians  ,never treat animals those  are suspected for haemoprotozoan without laboratory diagnosis . Always try to give specific treatment to avoid drug resistance and burden on the pocket of the livestok owner . Sometime there is mix infection ,like anaplasmosis and theileriasis most of the time ,but from clinical signs we are not able to judge clearly ,which treatment is to be given .

After taking blood sample we can give suportive treatment like ,antipyretic ,dextrose saline etc.

After looking the laboratory report specific treatment starts

Anaplasmosis :  Injection oxytetracycline 100ml in normal saline i/v for three days . If there is reoccurance or carrior state  of disease then give oxytetracycline LA 20  mg /kg body wt i/m. repeat after 1 wk .

Imidocarb is highly effective against anaplasma marginale a single injection @1.5 mg/kg s/c (The Merck Veterinary Manual 8^th Edition Page no 23)suportive treatment with antipyretic, haemetinic syrup .

Theileriasis

Subclinical theileriasis: When blood picture shows only koch’s blue bodies in lymphoblasts and cbc shows lymphocytosis and there is no fever and anaemia we should treat the animal with schizonticidal drug lactate salt of halofuginone @1.2-2.0 mg/kg body weight orally for two days , or we can give injection of oxytetracycline –LA @20 mg /kg body weight i/m.(Handbook of infectiousanimal  diseases by Shukriti Sharma ,Vishal Mahajan and K.S Sandhu 2008 edition page no260-261)

Clinical Theileriasis ; when there is high fever with anaemia and blood pictuer shows piroplasms of Theileria anulata we should traeat the animal with buparvaquone(butalex) @2.5 mg/kg body weight i/m repeat after 48 hours .

Suportive therapy is must like antipyretic ,haematinics.

Trypanosomiasis Many drugs are used to treat  trypanosomiasis in dairy animals .

Quinapyramine sulfate @ 5 mg/kg body weight s/c is used for treatment.and combination of quinapyramine sulfate and chloride are used for prophylactic and treatment @7.4 mg/kg body wt.(Handbook of infectious animal  diseases  by Shukriti Sharma ,Vishal Mahajan and K.S Sandhu 2008 edition page no 275)

There is hypoglycaemia in animals so give dextrose saline i/v injections and other suportive treatment

Babesiosis:Injection diminazene aceturate is given i/m @ 3-5 mg/kg body weight . (Injection imidocarb dipropionate s/c injection @1.2 mg/kg body weight (The Merck Veterinary Manual 8^th Edition Page no.25) suportive treatment with antipyretic and haemup syrups .

Controle of haemoprotozoan :- Effective control of haemoprotozoan diseases is with control of ticks both on animals and in sheds , 80% of ticks live in sheds in groves of walls and floor of sheds and 20% of ticks on animal body . to kill ticks on body of animals apply drugs like amitraj pour on or butox . we can dipp the animal also when more number of ticks on the body of animals . we can also use injection ivermectin @ dose of  1 ml /33 kg body weigt s/c.

For control of ticks in sheds ;- 1)  Burning of sheds with hot air. 2) spray with malathion 0.5%

For control of flies like tabnid flies : These flies develop in warm and damp places ,therefore spray with kerosene oil or turpentine oil to kill the aquatic larvae . The manure should be frequently removed from sheds .

All slides  are prepaired, examined  and diagnosed by me ( Dr Parvinder kaur ,vety.officer NRDDL ,Jalandhar Punjab )

Refrence

1. The Merck Veterinary Manual 8^th Edition .
2. Handbook of infectious animal diseases  by Shukriti Sharma ,Vishal Mahajan and K.S Sandhu 2008 edition.