Comparative Study of Diminazene Aceturate in Trypanosomiasis Therapy in Nigerian Local Dogs Using Intramuscular and Intravenous Routes of Administration

Trypanosoma brucei infection is an important protozoan disease of dogs in tsetse fly infested areas of Africa. It is associated with great economic losses in dogs. Diminazine aceturate (DA) is commonly used in Nigeria for the management of protozoan diseases including trypanosomosis. DA has however been found to have potential harmful effect on the liver, heart, kidney and brain. The need to evaluate the efficacy of DA administered intramuscularly and intravenously in acute infection and evaluate the biochemical and cardiovascular effect warranted this study.\r\nIn this study, we compared the treatment of single doses of DA intramuscular (i/m), and slow intravenous (i/v) administration. Sixteen local dogs (4-5 months) were used and grouped as Control (C), Trypanosome infested (untreated, T1), Trypanosome infested (i/m treated, T2), and Trypanosome infested (i/v treated, T3).\r\nDA was administered to T2 and T3 eight days after inoculation and trypanosome parasitaemia had been established. Daily body weight and body temperature, haematological tests, serological tests, parasitaemia and electrocardiograms of the dogs were evaluated in each group. \r\nResults show a steady rise in temperature after parasitaemia which resolved after treatment. There were significant increase in packed cell volume, mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration, and creatinine, in the treated groups when compared with the control and untreated groups. There was significant increase in lymphocyte count in T2 compared to the control as well. There was a reduction in blood pressure of the infected untreated group. The electrocardiogram data showed significant increase in PR interval and QT interval in T1 and QTc intervals in T1, T2, and T3 across groups.\r\nWe conclude that, though both routes cleared the parasitaemia and the intravenous route was well tolerated, no summative comparative advantage was seen over the intramuscular routes in the parameters observed in this study. Further work is needed to examine if advantage can be observed in long term prevention of relapse by the intravenous route.