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INTRODUCTION
« The search for truth is in one way hard and in the other easyo For it is evident that no one can master it fully or miss it wholly. But each adds a little to our knowledge of Nature, and from all the facts assembled there arises a certain grandeur’ There is considerable evidence to suggest that the canine disease caused by Babesia canis has been recognized in South Africa foJ. »‘ the greater part of two centurieso During the nineteenth century it was called malignant jaundice, malignant malarial fever and similar names but its causal organism was seen and described only in 1895 in r·taly. Since then it has clearly become one of the most important infectious diseases of dogs over a large part of the worldo Apart from the icy Arctica and Antarctica, Australia only among the continents, until very recently, was considered to be free of the diseaseo
However, since it was diagnosed in ~ueensland in 1966 it is now to be found in all continents where infected vector ticks exist.
In South Africa where the climate varies for the grea te.r part from tropical to temperate few dogs escape becoming infected fairly early in life, most of them probably during their first yearo At the Onderstepoort small animal clinic, serving a limited area, some 500 dogs are treated annually for this disease.
During the early years of this century there was great interest in the transmitting ticks and in the clinical features of the disease. Later a great deal of work was done in connection with chemotherapy, attempts at cultivation of the parasites, attempts at transmission to other kinds of animals, the taxonomy of the organism and related aspects of its biology. There was early interest in the anaemia caused by the disease and the presence of bile pigments in the blood and urine, and numerous limited studies of particular aspects appeared in the literatureo The first broader investigations of the clinical pathology of the disease were made by Maegraith, Gilles and their co-workers at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. Their primary interest was in malaria, but owing to the very great degree of analogy between pathological processes in the two diseases and the ready availability of dogs as experimental animals they also paid attention to this diseaseo This was done by artifically infecting dogs by subinoculation of susceptible animals from infected ones.
1 INTRODUCTION
2. THE DISEASE CAUSED BY BABESIA CANIS (REVIEW)
2ol Definition
2o2 Synonyms
2.3 History and Dis tri bu tion
2.4 Symptomatology
2o5 Chemotherapy
2.6 Pathology
2.7 Immunity
3 THE CAUSAL ORGANISM (REVIEW)
Jol Classification
3g2 Morphology and diagnosis
3.3 Life-cycle
3.4 Transmission
3.5 Cultivation
3o6 Pathogenicity
4 MATERIALS AND METHODS (GENERAL)
5 CLINICAL PATHOLOGY OF THE LIVER IN
Introduction
Influence on bromsulphalein retention
Influence on transaminase in plasma
Influence on plasma alkaline phosphatase
Influence on bilirubin metabolism
Influence on serum proteins
Influence on prothrombin time
Influence on cholesterol
Influence on plasma iron
Influence on plasma uric acid
6 CLINICAL PATHOLOGY OF THE KIDNEYS IN BABESIOSIS
7 INFLUENCE OF BABESIOSIS ON HAEMATOLOGY
8 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
9 SUMMARY
