The ehrlichiae are obligate intracellular bacteria that infect circulating leucocytes. Ehrlichia chaffeensis infects the monocytes and macrophages in humans and causes human monocytic ehrlichiosis. The clinical manifestations of ehrlichiosis in humans are nonspecific and similar to Rocky Mountain spotted fever. The clinical manifestations include fever, chills, headache, myalgia or vomiting, and weight loss. Most patients have a history of tick exposure.
Ehrlichia canis infects and causes ehrlichiosis in animals belonging to the family Canidae. Canine ehrlichiosis consists of an acute and a chronic phase. The acute phase is characterized by fever, serous nasal and ocular discharges, anorexia, depression, and loss of weight. The chronic phase is characterized by severe pancytopenia, epistaxis, hematuria, blood in feces in addition to more severe clinical signs of the acute disease. If treated early during the course of the disease, dogs respond well to doxycycline. However, chronically infected dogs do not respond well to the antibiotic. Therefore, early diagnosis is very important for treating canine ehrlichiosis.
The primary diagnostic test for diagnosing canine ehrlichiosis and human ehrlichiosis is the indirect fluorescent antibody (IFA) test. This test uses the etiologic agent Ehrlichia canis to diagnose canine ehrlichiosis. The IFA test uses Ehrlichia chaffeensis as antigen for diagnosing human ehrlichiosis. The IFA test has, however, serious limitations. The IFA test is subject to false positives because the antigens are made of whole infected cells which comprise many nonspecific proteins which will cross-react with sera from some patients. The IFA test is also subject to false negatives because IFA antigens are unstable and may become inactivated during storage. In addition the IFA test requires a special equipment to perform the test. For example, the IFA test requires a tissue culture system for growing the bacterium that are used to prepare the antigen slides, a fluorescent microscope, and trained persons to evaluate the serum reactivity to the bacterial antigen on the slide.
Tools which permit simpler, more rapid, and objective serodiagnosis of canine ehrlichiosis or human ehrlichiosis are desirable.