The Alterations of Erythrocyte Osmotic Fragility and Hematological Parameters in Puppies with Parvoviral Enteritis in Kirikkale, Türkiye

Canine parvoviral enteritis (CPVe) is an important infectious disease that has pretty high morbidity and mortality rates in puppies, which leads to vomiting and diarrhea range from mucoid to hemorrhagic. The objective of this study to investigate the changes in erythrocyte osmotic fragility (EOF) and hematological parameters in dogs with CPVe. Sixteen healthy and twenty-seven infected male and female dogs identified by the CPV antigen rapid-test kit at ages 2-6 months old were used to collect blood samples. A complete blood count and EOF were measured from the samples. Findings of hemogram showed that WBC, RBC, and HCT values were significantly lower in infected dogs (the p-value of the first one is p<0.001, other two ones are p<0.05) compared to healthy controls. The infected dogs had non-significantly lower NEU, EOS, and PLT values, and higher LYM, MON, MCV, MCH, and MCHC values than control group (p>0.05). Although the hemolysis rate of infected dogs' erythrocytes at the concentrations of 0.4 - 0.1 % NaCl were higher than that of healthy dogs, this difference was statistically significant at only 0.3% NaCl (p<0.05). In addition, the median corpuscular fragility (MCF), equal to the NaCl concentration that lyses 50% of erythrocytes, of dogs with CPVe (0.42%) was higher than the MCF values of the control group (0.39%), but not statistically significant (p>0.05). In conclusion, besides the hematological findings revealed that WBC, RBC, and HCT values were significantly lower in dogs with CPVe than that in healthy dogs in this study, it was reported for the first time that canine parvovirus significantly increased osmotic fragility of RBCs at 0.3 % NaCl concentration compared to the control group. We concluded that to consider of these, particularly affected, blood parameters may be useful for determining the prognosis of CPVe.