Muhammad Usman AKram

(DVM Student at Rcvets Lahore)

One Liner • Rickettsiales and
About The Slide
 All the diseases caused
Coxiella burnetii
by the Rickettsiales
are vectorborne
diseases(i.e when the
ticks or flukes infected
with Rickettsiales
contact with
animal,the animal also
get infected) and signs
and symptoms of all
diseases are of flu like
and all diseases can be
treated with the
tetracycline Antibiotic
Important Pathological Conditions
 Aegyptianellosis
 Aegyptianellosis is an acute, tickborne,
febrile disease caused by Aegyptianella
spp, a rickettsia in the family
Anaplasmataceae.
 Target cells are erythrocytes.(Rbcs).
 Ticks, especially Argas spp, transmit the
organism; infection can also be
reproduced by blood inoculation.
 Aegyptianellosis
 Organisms stain purple with Romanowsky
stain and appear as single or multiple, round,
“signet-ring” (0.3–4 mcm) or irregular oval
bodies in RBCs often lateral to the nucleus.
 Aegyptianellosis
 Signs and Symptoms:
 Ruffled feathers
 anorexia
 droopiness
 diarrhea
 Fever
 high mortality in younger bird
 Anemia
 enlargement of the liver and spleen
 enlarged discolored kidneys
 pinpoint serosal hemorrhage
 Aegyptianellosis
 Treatment and control:
 Tetracyclines, especially doxycycline
 effectively control the disease and possibly
eliminate the organism from chronically
infected birds.
 Tick control is an important adjunct to
treatment.
 Anaplasmosis
 Anaplasmosis, formerly known as gall
sickness, traditionally refers to a disease of
ruminants caused by obligate intraerythrocytic
bacteria of the order Rickettsiales, family
Anaplasmataceae, genus Anaplasma.
 Cattle, sheep, goats, buffalo, and some wild
ruminants can be infected with the erythrocytic
Anaplasma.
 Etiology
 Clinical bovine anaplasmosis is usually caused by A marginale.
 Cattle are also infected with A centrale, which generally results
in mild disease.
 A ovis may cause mild to severe disease in sheep, deer, and
goats.
 A phagocytophilum has recently been reported to infect cattle;
however, natural infection is rare and it does not cause clinical
disease.
 A bovis (formerly E bovis), and A platys (formerly E platys),
all of which invade blood cells other than erythrocytes of their
respective mammalian hosts.
 Anaplasmosis
 Transmission:
 tick vector species (including Dermacentor, Rhipicephalus,
Ixodes, Hyalomma, and Argas) have been reported to
transmit Anaplasma spp.
 Epidemiology:
 Calves are much more resistant to disease than older cattle
 Cattle recovered from the acute phase become immune for
the further infection.
 Serious loses occur when cattle with no previous exposure
transported to the endemic area.
 Clinical Findings
 Anemia due to erythrophagocytosis.
 Jaundice
 Blood is thin and watery.
 The spleen is characteristically enlarged and soft, with
prominent follicles.
 The liver may be mottled and yellow-orange.
 The gallbladder is often distended and contains thick brown or
green bile.
 Hepatic and mediastinal lymph nodes appear brown
 A significant proportion of erythrocytes are usually found to be
parasitized after death due to acute infection.
Life Cycle
Anaplasmosis
 . Anaplasmosis is
characterized by progressive
anemia due to extravascular
destruction of infected and
uninfected erythrocytes.
 Generally, 10%–30% of
erythrocytes are infected at
peak rickettsemia, although
this figure may be as high as
65%.
 RBC count, PCV, and
hemoglobin values are all
severely reduced.
 Macrocytic anemia with
circulating reticulocytes
may be present late in the
disease.
 Treatment and Control
 Tetracycline antibiotics and imidocarb are
currently used for treatment.
 Cattle may be sterilized by treatment with
these drugs and remain immune to severe
anaplasmosis subsequently for at least 8 mo.
 Proper immunization and elimination of
arthropods vectors are viable control steps.
 Ehrlichiosis
 Ehrlichiosis is a bacterial illness transmitted by
ticks that causes flu-like symptoms.
 It is an infection caused by obligate,
intracellular organisms that primarily affect
cells of the immune system in dogs, cats, and
people.
 Granulocytes,Monocytes,Macrophages are
affected by the infection.
 Etiology
 A.Phagocytophilum caused Equine and
human granulocytic ehrlichiosis.
 E.canis caused canine monocytic
ehrlichiosis.
 E.ewingii caused canine granulocytic
ehrlichiosis.
 E.ovis caused ehrlichiosis in sheep.
 Signs and symptoms
 Anorexia
 Depression
 loss of stamina
 Stiffness
 reluctance to walk
 edema of the limbs or scrotum
 coughing
 Clinical Findings
 Marked splenomegaly
 Glomerulonephritis
 Renal failure
 Interstitial pneumonitis
 Anterior uveitis
 Meningitis (with associated cerebellar ataxia,
depression, paresis, and hyperesthesia)
 Severe weight loss
 Treatment
 To treat infection with Ehrlichia and Anaplasma
spp, the drug of choice.
 Doxycycline: 5–10 mg/kg/day, PO or IV, for 10–
21 days (drug of choice)
 Tetracycline: 22 mg/kg, PO, tid (≥2 weeks, acute
cases, 1–2 months, chronic cases)
 Imidocarb diproprionate: 2 doses, 5–7 mg/kg,
IM, 2 weeks apart (also effective for some strains
of babesiosis)
Ehrlichiosis
 This image depicts the
intracellular etiologic
agents of ehrlichioses.
 On the left the blood
smear shows you the
bacterial organism
responsible for causing
what used to be known
as human granulocytic
ehrlichiosis (HGE),
 On the right, the
intracellular bacterial
organisms responsible
for causing human
monocytic ehrlichiosis
(HME).
Possible consequences of infection with
Ehrlichia canis.
 Protomac horse fever
 Other names:
 Equine monocytic ehrlichiosis
 Ditch fever
 Shasta River crud
 Equine ehrlichial colitis
 The disease is characterized by the infection of
enterocytes(cell of the intestinal lining) of the
small and large intestine results in acute
colitis(inflammation of the lining of the colon).
Protomac
horse Fever
 Potomac horse fever is
an infectious disorder
affecting all ages of
horse.
 PHF is caused by the
organism Neorickettsia
risticii.
 Horse are infected by
consuming aquatic
insects such as mayflies
and/or caddisflies or
water from areas where
infected snails, the
natural host, are found.
 Clinical Findings
 The clinical features of PHF are typified
initially by mild depression and anorexia,
followed by a fever of 102°–107°F (38.9°–
41.7°C).
 Within 24–48 hr, a moderate to severe diarrhea,
with feces ranging in consistency from that
usually seen in cows to watery, develops in
~60% of affected horses.
 Diarrhea may be life threatening.
 Other Neorickettsia Infections
 Salmon fish poisoning and Elokomin Fluke
fever ere the acute infectious disease of canids,
ferrets, bears, and raccoons.
 It is transmitted through the various stages of a
fluke in a snail-fish-dog life cycle.
 When a dog eat fish infected with fluke which
is carring the pathogens the dog also get
infected.
Life cycle
 Clinical findings
 Infection appears to chiefly affect the lymphoid
tissues and intestines.
 There is enlargement of the GI lymph follicles,
lymph nodes, tonsils, thymus, and to some
extent, the spleen, with microscopic necrosis,
hemorrhage, and hyperplasia.
 abdominal or mesenteric lymphadenomegaly
may be seen.
 nonhemorrhagic enteritis