ABSTRACT
This chapter describes some major epidemiologic data on canine babesiosis in France and also highlight pertinent aspects of the field trials evaluating safety and efficacy of Pirodog. Canine babesiosis is a tick-borne disease of dogs and other Canidae characterized by fever and varying degrees of anemia which often develops rapidly. S. Martinod has demonstrated that in endemic areas, most dogs show serologic evidence of exposure to both B. canis and its tick vector. The successful development of short-term cultures for B. canis, and its subsequent improvement, facilitated the production of highly immunogenic exoantigens. Canine babesiosis continues to be of major importance in France where more than 400,000 cases are recorded every year. In the results of the clinical trials reported herein, protection was accomplished with the culture-derived exoantigen at the level of 70 to 100%, and the disease occasionally seen in vaccinates was generally mild.
