Journal Article

Molecular prevalence, associated risk factors and phylogenetic evaluation of Theileria lestoquardi in the blood samples of small ruminants

Hikal, Wafaa M., Muqaddas, Hira, Iqbal, Furhan, Ashraf, Sehrish, Almahallawi, Ruoa

2024

Overview

Raising small ruminants is the main source of income for farmers in Pakistan especially in rural areas of Dera Ghazi Khan in Punjab. Despite having large sheep population, the prevalence of intra-erythrocytic protozoa, Theileria ( T .) lestoquardi , has never been reported from this area. This study was conducted to fill this knowledge gap and 333 blood samples of apparently healthy small ruminants (168 sheep and 165 goats) along with their epidemiological data were collected from Dera Ghazi Khan district during August till November 2022. The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis amplified a 785 base pair amplicon specific for the Merozoite surface antigen ( ms 1–2 ) gene of T . lestoquardi in 2 out of the 168 (3.3%) sheep blood samples, while no goat blood sample out of 165 was found to be infected with T . lestoquardi . DNA sequencing confirmed the presence of Theileria lestoquardi in both samples and phylogenetic analysis revealed that these amplicon resembled the partial ms 1–2 gene sequences detected in small ruminants from Pakistan, India Iran and Egypt. All the studied epidemiological factors (age, sex, breed, size of herd, dogs with herd, composition of herd, size of herd and Tick burden on sheep) were not found associated with the prevalence of T . lestoquardi . In conclusion, this study reports a low prevalence of T . lestoquardi infection in the Dera Ghazi Khan District of Punjab, Pakistan. The data generated from this work will help pave the way for the prophylactic detection and control of ovine and caprine theileriosis in the region.

• Publisher: Public Library of Science,Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subject: Agriculture / Algorithms / Animal populations / Animals / Antigens / Arachnids / Biology and Life Sciences / Blood / DNA sequencing / Epidemiology / Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid / Female / Gene sequencing / Goat Diseases - blood / Goat Diseases - epidemiology / Goat Diseases - parasitology / Goats / Goats - parasitology / Health aspects / Infections / Livestock / Male / Medicine and Health Sciences / Mortality / Nucleotide sequence / Nucleotide sequencing / Pakistan - epidemiology / Parasites / Parasitic diseases / Pathogens / People and Places / Phylogenetics / Phylogeny / Polymerase chain reaction / Prevalence / Prevalence studies (Epidemiology) / Protozoa / Risk Factors / Rural areas / Sheep / Sheep - parasitology / Sheep Diseases - blood / Sheep Diseases - epidemiology / Sheep Diseases - parasitology / Temperature / Theileria - classification / Theileria - genetics / Theileria - isolation & purification / Theileria lestoquardi / Theileriasis - blood / Theileriasis - epidemiology / Theileriasis - parasitology / Theileriosis / Variance analysis