Nationwide serological surveillance of non-tsetse-transmitted horse trypanosomoses in Mongolia

Daiki Mizushima; Tovuu Amgalanbaatar; Batdorj Davaasuren; Mitsunori Kayano; Sandagdorj Naransatsral; Punsantsogvoo Myagmarsuren; Davaajav Otgonsuren; Batsaikhan Enkhtaivan; Batbold Davkharbayar; Bayasgalan Mungun-Ochir; Purevdorj Baatarjargal; Uranbileg Nyamdolgor; Gurdorj Soyolmaa; Adilbish Altanchimeg; Myagmar Zoljargal; Thu-Thuy Nguyen; Badgar Battsetseg; Banzragch Battur; Noboru Inoue; Naoaki Yokoyama; Keisuke Suganuma

doi:10.1016/j.parepi.2020.e00158

Nationwide serological surveillance of non-tsetse-transmitted horse trypanosomoses in Mongolia

Parasite Epidemiol Control. 2020 Jun 25:10:e00158. doi: 10.1016/j.parepi.2020.e00158. eCollection 2020 Aug.

Authors

Daiki Mizushima^{1

2}, Tovuu Amgalanbaatar³, Batdorj Davaasuren³, Mitsunori Kayano⁴, Sandagdorj Naransatsral³, Punsantsogvoo Myagmarsuren³, Davaajav Otgonsuren^{1

3}, Batsaikhan Enkhtaivan³, Batbold Davkharbayar³, Bayasgalan Mungun-Ochir³, Purevdorj Baatarjargal³, Uranbileg Nyamdolgor³, Gurdorj Soyolmaa³, Adilbish Altanchimeg³, Myagmar Zoljargal³, Thu-Thuy Nguyen¹, Badgar Battsetseg³, Banzragch Battur³, Noboru Inoue⁵, Naoaki Yokoyama¹, Keisuke Suganuma^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ National Research Center for Protozoan Diseases, Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Inada, Obihiro, Hokkaido 080-8555, Japan.
² Division of Medical Zoology, Department of Infection and Immunity, Jichi Medical University, School of Medicine, 3311-1 Yakushiji, Shimotsuke, Tochigi 329-0498, Japan.
³ Institute of Veterinary Medicine, Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, Mongolian University of Life Sciences, Zaisan 17024, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
⁴ Research Center for Global Agromedicine, Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Inada, Obihiro, Hokkaido 080-8555, Japan.
⁵ Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Inada, Obihiro, Hokkaido 080-8555, Japan.

Abstract

In Mongolia, horses play important roles, not only in livestock production, but also in terms of culture, tradition, and Mongolian beliefs. Although the presence of non-tsetse-transmitted horse trypanosomoses, which are caused by infections with Trypanosoma evansi (surra) and T. equiperdum (dourine), has been reported in the country, whether there is a nationwide epidemic of these infectious diseases is unknown. In the present study, a nationwide surveillance of horse trypanosomoses was performed. The sample sizes for each province, the whole country, and male and female horses were, respectively, 96, 2,400, and 316 and 306. In total, 3,641 samples of horse sera were collected by simple random sampling. The rTeGM6-4r-based ELISA, which was applied for surra against cattle and water buffalo and dourine against horse, revealed that the overall sero-prevalence of the diseases in Mongolia was 4.8%. Among them, high sero-prevalences were observed in the central provinces (5.2-11.0%, p < 0.05) of the country. The sero-prevalence was significantly higher in females than in males (6.0% and 4.0%, p < 0.05, respectively) and in non-castrated males (8.4%, p < 0.01) compared with castrated males (3.0%). These results suggested that currently, horse trypanosomoses are a nationwide endemic problem in Mongolia. Knowledge of the nationwide endemic status of non-tsetse-transmitted horse trypanosomoses in Mongolia will be useful to prevent these diseases.

Keywords: Castration; Dourine; ELISA; Horse trypanosomosis; Surra.