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Epidemiology of tick‐borne pathogens in the semi‐arid and the arid agro‐ecological zones of Punjab province, Pakistan
Author(s) -
Rehman Abdul,
Conraths Franz J.,
SauterLouis Carola,
Krücken Jürgen,
Nijhof Ard M.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
transboundary and emerging diseases
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.392
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1865-1682
pISSN - 1865-1674
DOI - 10.1111/tbed.13059
Subject(s) - theileria , anaplasma , biology , babesia bovis , ehrlichia , babesia , tick borne disease , rhipicephalus , veterinary medicine , tick , ecology , virology , parasite hosting , medicine , world wide web , computer science
Tick‐borne diseases ( TBD s) have a large impact on animal health and the livelihood of livestock owners, particularly in developing countries. Although climatic and ecological conditions in Pakistan may favour the transmission of tick‐borne pathogens ( TBP s), only a few systematic studies have been carried out on TBP s and the diseases that they cause in this country. To improve our understanding of the distribution of TBP s, 3,807 ticks were collected from ruminants ( n = 369) on 108 livestock farms (semi‐arid zone = 36, arid zone = 72) in Punjab Province. After morphological identification ticks were pooled into 405 pools ( Hyalomma anatolicum = 300, Rhipicephalus microplus = 89, Hyalomma dromedarii = 9, Rhipicephalus turanicus = 7) based on their species, locality of collection, and the host. DNA from each pool was screened by a Reverse Line Blot ( RLB ) hybridization assay for the presence of Anaplasma, Ehrlichia , Rickettsia , Babesia, and Theileria species. DNA from at least one TBP was found in 142 (35.1%) pools. Among the positive pools, 91 (64.1%) had a mixed infection with two or more TBP s, whereas 51 (35.9%) pools were infected with a single TBP . The detected pathogens not only included species that were known to be endemic in Pakistan, such as Theileria annulata (6.7%), Theileria orientalis (3.5%), Anaplasma marginale (5.7%), Anaplasma centrale (2.7%), Anaplasma ovis (1.5%), Babesia bigemina (0.7%), and Babesia bovis (0.2%), but also several TBP s that had not been reported to occur in Pakistan before. This included Ehrlichia minasensis (3.2%), an Anaplasma platys ‐like organism (1.2%), Babesia occultans (0.2%), and Rickettsia massiliae (0.2%), as well as two previously uncharacterized species: Ehrlichia sp. Multan (18.0%) and Anaplasma sp. ( BL 099‐6) (2.22%). The pathogenicity of these novel species remains to be examined. This study shows that a much broader spectrum of TBP s is present in Pakistan than previously thought, including several zoonotic pathogens.