hematologic and clinical aspects of anaplasmosis caused by anaplasma phagocytophilum and treatment by imidocarb dipropionate in qazvin, iran

Equine granulocytic anaplasmosis (ega) is a tick-borne disease affecting horses worldwide, caused by anaplasma phagocytophilum. it mostly infects horses, they show atypical signs of the disease characterized by fever, limb edema, anorexia, depression, icterus, ataxia, tachycardia and the most common hematological abnormalities are thrombocytopenia, anemia, decreased hematocrit, leukopenia, lymphopenia, and neutropenia. among the treatments used for anaplasmosis is a drug called imidocarb dipropionate, also indicated as an immunomodulator agent. the aim of the present study was to investigate the hematological changes in experimental anaplasmosis in horses and the effect of imidocarb on it. this study investigated the results of indirect methods (immunofluorescence antibody test [ifat]) for a. phagocytophilum according to clinical signs in horses. in horses with positive test results, complete blood count (cbc) and serum amyloid a (saa) were also evaluated. the red cell counts, packed cell volume and hemoglobin concentration were decreased and mean corpuscular volume was increased significantly during the infection period. reticulocytosis and basophilic stippling were also detected. no significant changes were observed in total and differential leukocyte count and animal body temperature this study was performed with two doses of imidocarb dipropionate 2.4 mg/kg (im) at a 24-hour interval and glycopyrrolate 0.0025 mg/kg (iv) for preventing side effect of imidocarb in horses, the animal was completely recovered after a week and no side effects of the drug were seen. there were negative correlations between parasitemia and rbc, pcv and hb values, therefore hematological assessment can be considered as a practical diagnostic tool in ega.