AN ORGANISM THAT IS VIRTUALLY IDENTICAL TO ANAPLASMA PHAGOCYTOPHILA/EHRLICHIA EQUI HAS RECENTLY BEEN DEMONSTRATED TO BE THE CAUSE OF GRANULOCYTIC EHRLICHIOSIS IN DOGS IN WISCONSIN AND MINNESOTA, THE SAME GEOGRAPHIC AREA WHERE HGE WAS FIRST DESCRIBED IN HUMANS!

(Click here for a photo of Ehrlichia morulae in a granulocyte from a dog)

Clinical signs of granulocytic ehrlichiosis in dogs include:

• fever
• lethargy, anorexia
• reluctance to move, stiffness, lameness
  • Oligo/polyarthropathy are much more common with the granulocytic form of ehrlichiosis in dogs than with monocytic ehrlichiosis.
• CNS signs
• lymphopenia and thrombocytopenia
  • Note that these signs are at least superficially similar to those in dogs with Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever and E. canis infection. Hence, each of these diseases should be differential diagnoses for the others.

In a study by Grieg et al. in WI and MN, dogs with granulocytic ehrlichiosis were serologically and PCR (+) for E. equi, but (-) for E. canis. Results from Sweden show that the agent isolated in that part of the world from dogs and horses is also identical to the human HGE agent.

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