ABSTRACT: To determine the association between ocular abnormalities and hematologic findings in Ehrlichia canis-infected dogs, 120 dogs suspected of canine ehrlichiosis were studied. All patients subjected to rapid serologic diagnostic test for canis, diagnosis was confirmed by quantitative PCR. PCR-positive underwent ophthalmologic examination a hemogram grouped into with thrombocytopenia anem...

The extent of knowledge regarding the diversity of globally distributed Ehrlichia canis strains has been limited to information gained from a few evolutionarily conserved genes. In this study, E. canis strains from the United States (strain Jake [US]), Brazil (strain São Paulo [BR]), and Israel (strain 611 [IS] and Ranana [IS-R]) were used to examine the antigenic and genetic diversities of fou...

BACKGROUND Recent advances in bioinformatics have made it possible to predict the B cell and T cell epitopes of antigenic proteins. This has led to design of peptide based vaccines that are more specific, safe, and easy to produce. The obligately intracellular gram negative bacteria Ehrlichia cause ehrlichioses in humans and animals. As yet there are no vaccines to protect against Ehrlichia inf...

BACKGROUND Human ehrlichiosis is a recently recognized tick-borne infection. Four species infect humans: Ehrlichia chaffeensis, E. sennetsu, E. canis, and the agent of human granulocytic ehrlichiosis. METHODS We tested peripheral-blood leukocytes from 413 patients with possible ehrlichiosis by broad-range and species-specific polymerase-chain-reaction (PCR) assays for ehrlichia. The species p...

The aim of this study was to optimize a PCR assay that amplifies an 843 pb fragment from the p28 gene of Ehrlichia canis and compare it with two other PCR methods used to amplify portions of the 16S rRNA and dsb genes of Ehrlichia. Blood samples were collected from dogs suspected of having a positive diagnosis for canine ehrlichiosis. Amplification of the p28 gene by PCR produced an 843-bp frag...

In order to evaluate the relative sensitivity of the detection of antibodies against various antigenic proteins of Ehrlichia chaffeensis for the diagnosis of the emerging infectious disease human monocytotropic ehrlichiosis, Western immunoblotting was performed with 27 serum samples from convalescent patients with antibodies, as demonstrated by indirect immunofluorescence assay. Among 22 patien...

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 ...

This study investigated the etiology of canine ehrlichiosis and possible clinical and epidemiological data associated with the infection in 70 dogs suspect of ehrlichiosis attended at the Veterinary Hospital of the São Paulo State University in Botucatu city during 2001 and 2002. Dogs were evaluated by clinical-epidemiological and hematological data and molecular analysis by partial amplificati...

A serological survey on Ehrlichia canis was conducted among dogs in the central area of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, where the tick Rhipicephalus sanguineus is a common parasite of dogs. Out of a total of 316 dogs attended at the veterinary teaching hospital in the municipality of Santa Maria, only 14 (4.43%) reacted positively to E. canis antigens in the indirect immunofluorescence assay, w...

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