Retrospective study on intercurrent pancreatitis with Babesia gibsoni infection in dogs

Abstract

Babesia rossi infection has been reported to be associated with the high prevalence of pancreatitis in dogs. In this study, we retrospectively investigated whether pancreatitis occurs in B. gibsoni-infected dogs. The clinical manifestations, and hematological and serum biochemical examination results, including canine pancreatic-specific lipase (cPL), in 20 B. gibsoni-infected dogs were analyzed. The cPL concentration exceeded 400 µg/l in only 2 dogs, and they were suspected of having pancreatitis. Although the cPL concentration did not correlate with the degree of anemia or the level of parasitemia, it correlated with the band neutrophil count, platelet count, and blood urea nitrogen (BUN) level. Our study suggested that the prevalence of pancreatitis is lower among B. gibsoni-infected dogs than B. rossi-infected dogs.