Prevalence of piroplasms in small ruminants in North-West Tunisia and the first genetic characterisation of Babesia ovis in Africa

Parasite

and Mohamed Aziz Darghouth²  Mourad Rekik¹  Limam Sassi²  Mohamed Jedidi²  Ines Nasfi²  Boutheïna Ayari²  Wiem Mabrouk²  Moez Mhadhbi²  Mohamed Gharbi²  Mohamed Ridha Rjeibi² 

[1] International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA),PO Box 950764,Amman11195,Jordan;Laboratoire de Parasitologie, Université de la Manouba, École Nationale de Médecine Vétérinaire de Sidi Thabet,2020Sidi Thabet,Tunisia

关键词: Tunisia;    PCR;    Theileria ovis;    Babesia ovis;    Haemopathogen;    Small ruminants;   

Others  :  808331
DOI  :  doi:10.1051/parasite/2014025

 received in 2014-01-17, accepted in 2014-05-07,  发布年份 2014

【 摘 要 】

In this study, the prevalence of piroplasms in sheep and goats was assessed with Giemsa-stained blood smear examination, PCR and nested PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) to identify Babesia and Theileria species, respectively, in 338 small ruminants (172 sheep and 166 goats) from three sites in North-West Tunisia during the 2011 summer season. The overall infection prevalence of piroplasms in Giemsa-stained blood smears was 3.2% (11/338), with a parasitaemia ranging from 0.01 to 0.05%. PCR detected two species, namely Babesia ovis (in sheep and goats) and Theileria ovis (in sheep), with an overall prevalence of 16.3%. The molecular prevalence of B. ovis was significantly higher in sheep than in goats (17.4% and 9%, respectively, p = 0.034). The same trend was observed for T. ovis in sheep and goats (5.8% and 0%, respectively, p = 0.004). Comparison of the partial sequences of the 18S ssu rRNA gene revealed 100% similarity amongst Babesia from sheep and goats. The single Theileria sequence in this study showed 100% similarity to T. ovis. A high similarity with all the blasted genotypes was reported for Theileria and Babesia sequences. This is the first molecular detection of B. ovis and genetic characterisation of small ruminants’ piroplasms in Africa.

【 授权许可】

   
© M.R. Rjeibi et al., published by EDP Sciences, 2014

【 图 表 】

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