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. 2023 Aug 29;18(8):e0290620.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0290620. eCollection 2023.

Seasonality, epidemiology and phylogeny of Theileria ovis with a note on hematological and biochemical changes in asymptomatic infected goats from Pakistan

Muhammad Irfan  1 , Shun-Chung Chang  2 , Rana Khalid Iqbal  1 , Muhammad Tanveer  3 , Muhammad Asif  1 , Adil Khan  4 , Nasreen Nasreen  5 , Farhan Ahmad Atif  6 , Rehan Sadiq Shaikh  7 , Munir Aktas  8 , Mourad Ben Said  9   10 , Furhan Iqbal  3 , Chien-Chin Chen  11   12   13   14
Affiliations

Seasonality, epidemiology and phylogeny of Theileria ovis with a note on hematological and biochemical changes in asymptomatic infected goats from Pakistan

Muhammad Irfan et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Caprine theileriosis, caused by Theileria ovis is a serious production issue, especially in the areas that depend on goats and sheep for milk, meat, and other economic benefits. Pakistan has a large goat population, but few reports have been documented from this country regarding PCR-based detection of T. ovis. The molecular prevalence of T. ovis, on a seasonal basis, in various goat breeds enrolled from Muzaffar Garh district of Punjab in Pakistan was determined from October 2018 to September 2019. In this study, 1084 goat blood samples were screened for the detection of T. ovis DNA through PCR-based amplification of 18S rRNA gene. Out of 1084 goats, 12 (1.11%) were infected with T. ovis. The parasite prevalence varied with the sampling seasons (Chi square test, P = 0.008), and the parasite prevalence was highest in goat blood samples collected in summer (2.39%) followed by winter (1.88%). DNA sequencing and BLAST analysis confirmed the presence of T. ovis, and the amplified isolates from the 18S rRNA gene of T. ovis were found to be highly conserved during phylogenetic analysis. Young goats (Fischer exact test, P = 0.022) were found more infected with T. ovis during the winter season. Infected goats had elevated white blood cell counts (Two-sample t-test, P = 0.04), blood urea nitrogen to Creatinine ratio (Two-sample t-test, P = 0.02) and decreased serum Creatinine (Two-sample t-test, P = 0.001) as compared to T. ovis negative goats. We report a relatively low molecular prevalence of T. ovis in goats from the Muzaffar Garh district. However, it is recommended that control measures to eradicate T. ovis infection in goats in this area should be taken.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1
Maps of Pakistan showing Punjab Province (A) and Punjab province showing Muzaffar Garh district (B).
Fig 2
Fig 2. Phylogenetic tree based on a partial sequence (482 bp) of 18S rRNA gene of Theileria ovis isolated in this study (bold letters) with other small ruminants Theileria species in GenBank from around the world.
The evolutionary history was inferred by using the Maximum Likelihood method and Kimura 2-parameter model [24]. The percentage of replicate trees in which the associated taxa clustered together in the bootstrap test (1000 replicates) is shown next to the branches. Only bootstrap values >50 is indicated next to branches. GenBank accession numbers are indicated on the right of each species name. Babesia ovis (AY260178) was used as an outgroup. The scale-bar represents the evolutionary distance in the units of the number of nucleotide substitutions per site. Evolutionary analyses were conducted in MEGA X [23].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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