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OJVRTM
Online Journal of Veterinary Research©
Volume 22 (4):273-280, 2018.
Prevalence
of Theileria equi in
horses in central Iraq determined by microscopy and PCR.
Hayder Dawood Saleem, Firas
Rashad Al-Samarai
Department
of Veterinary Public Health/College of Veterinary Medicine/University of
Baghdad/Iraq
Saleem HD, Al-Samarai FR., Prevalence of Theileria equi in horses in
central Iraq determined by microscopy and PCR. Onl J Vet Res., 22 (4):273-280, 2018. We report incidence of Theileria equi in 94 horses from 7 locations in Iraq during March to May 2017. Differences
in prevalence between countries
are attributed to sample size, method of detection, breed and/or climate. Infected
horses can appear healthy but still be carriers being a continuous source of
infection. Blood samples were subjected to slide stain for
microscopy and real-time PCR (RT-PCR) of a
450bp long section of 18S rRNA. We found that T. equi was present in all locations in central Iraq. By
microscopy we found ~20% and by RT-PCR, 32% prevalence. Incidence was much higher (~64%) in Baghdad. For microscopy, sensitivity was ~30% and
specificity 84.4%. Differences in prevalence due to location and activity (of
horse) were significant (P<0.0001) but not for gender, age or period of data
collection. Risk factors were location and type of horse (draft/sports) (P<0.0001).
We find that microscopy is not suitable for detection of T equi in horses and confirm that PCR is more precise.
Keywords: Prevalence, Theileria
equi, Iraq, RT-PCR, Risk factors.
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