Molecular detection of Theileria species and Babesia caballi from horses in Nigeria

• Published in: Parasitology research (1987) Vol. 119; no. 9; pp. 2955 - 2963
• Main Authors: Mshelia, Philip W., Kappmeyer, Lowell, Johnson, Wendell C., Kudi, Caleb A., Oluyinka, Okubanjo O., Balogun, Emmanuel O., Richard, Edeh E., Onoja, Emmanuel, Sears, Kelly P., Ueti, Massaro W.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01-09-2020; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Babesia caballi; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Epidemiology; Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid; Genetic diversity; Horses; Immunology; Infection; Medical Microbiology; Microbiology; New species; Parasites; Phylogeny; Polymerase chain reaction; Protozoology - Original Paper; Rap1 protein; Theileria equi; Theileria haneyi; Tick-borne diseases; Nigeria; South Africa; Horses; Equine piroplasmosis
• ISSN: 0932-0113; 1432-1955
• DOI: 10.1007/s00436-020-06797-y

Equine piroplasmosis (EP) is an infectious, tick-borne disease caused by the hemoprotozoan parasites,
Theileria equi
,
Babesia caballi
, and a recently reported new species,
T. haneyi
. Infections by these apicomplexan parasites limit performance and cause economic losses for the horse industry. Equine piroplasmosis is widespread in the northern regions of Nigeria, where an increasing portion of the animal population is composed of horses. This disease has remained epidemiologically challenging, especially as the movement of horses increases across Nigeria. In this study, blood samples from 300 horses were collected in three states of northwestern Nigeria. The presence of piroplasms was screened by nested PCR targeting 18S rDNA and positive samples were analyzed using species-specific-nested PCR-targeting genes including
ema1
(
T. equi
),
rap1
(
B. caballi
), and a gene coding a protein of unknown function (
T. haneyi
). Species-specific-nPCR results demonstrated that the prevalence of
T. equi
was 13.0% (39/300),
B. caballi
was 3.3% (10/300) and
T. haneyi
was 2.7% (8/300). Mixed infections with
T. equi
and
B. caballi
was 2.7% (8/300) while
T. equi
,
B. caballi
, and
T. haneyi
multiple infection prevalence was 0.6% (2/300). We used 18S rDNA sequences to determine close relationships between
T. equi
by phylogenetic analysis and demonstrated that among 57 sequences of
Theileria
parasites, 28 samples belonged to clade A (49%), 13 samples were found to be clade C (22%), and 16 were clade D (28%). These results demonstrate the genetic diversity of
T. equi
circulating in horses from Nigeria.