[Splenopathy in a dog from Germany with autochthonous Babesia canis infection without clinical and hematological abnormalities].

Abstract

Splenomegaly with diffuse heterogeneous parenchyma was detected in a 6-year-old female Lagotto Romagnolo from Germany during routine ultrasonographic examination. The cytologic examination of a fine needle aspirate of the spleen revealed reactive lymphoid hyperplasia and extramedullary hematopoiesis. During diagnostic workup, babesiosis with high Babesia antibody levels and evidence of Babesia canis was diagnosed as the cause of the splenic parenchymal findings. At no time, the dog showed any clinical signs or clinicopathologic findings associated with the infection, although active babesiosis was diagnosed. Due to the high antibody level, it can be postulated that the dog had already been exposed to the pathogen at an earlier stage or that she had a subacute course of the disease.To the authors' knowledge, this is one of the few descriptions of babesiosis with structural splenopathy with evidence of extramedullary hematopoiesis as the only indication of the presence of the infectious disease and without corresponding clinicopathologic findings.