Morphology and transmission of Theileria recondita (Theileriidae: Sporozoa) isolated from Haemaphysalis punctata from north Wales

Abstract

Adult Haemaphysalis punctata (Canestrini and Fanzago 1877) collected from an area of rough grazing at Mynydd Mawr, Aberdaron, North Wales, transmitted Theileria recondita (Wales); field-collected nymphs failed to transmit this parasite. Following adult tick infestation, piroplasms were first observed in the blood of splenectomised infested sheep 8 days after tick attachment; the parasitaemia lasted 9 days. The parasite can also be transferred by syringe passage of blood from splenectomised to normal sheep and vice versa. Parasitaemias were higher and of longer duration in splenectomised animals. A rise in parasitaemia was detected in a splenectomised ewe after parturition, 19 months following blood-transmitted infection from which it had recovered clinically. The morphometrics of the piroplasms of T. recondita (Wales) were investigated; the rod and the ring forms were the most common. The mean length of the rod form was 2.09 microns and the mean diameter of the ring form was 1.22 micron.