Incidence of hemoparasitic infections in cattle from central and northern Thailand

Pongpisid Koonyosying; Amarin Rittipornlertrak; Paweena Chomjit; Kanokwan Sangkakam; Anucha Muenthaisong; Boondarika Nambooppha; Wanwisa Srisawat; Nisachon Apinda; Tawatchai Singhla; Nattawooti Sthitmatee

doi:10.7717/peerj.13835

Incidence of hemoparasitic infections in cattle from central and northern Thailand

PeerJ. 2022 Aug 10:10:e13835. doi: 10.7717/peerj.13835. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Pongpisid Koonyosying^{1

2}, Amarin Rittipornlertrak^{2

3}, Paweena Chomjit², Kanokwan Sangkakam², Anucha Muenthaisong², Boondarika Nambooppha^{2

4}, Wanwisa Srisawat^{1

2}, Nisachon Apinda^{2

3}, Tawatchai Singhla³, Nattawooti Sthitmatee^{2

4

5}

Affiliations

¹ Graduate School of Veterinary Science, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Chiang Mai University, Muang, Chiang Mai, Thailand.
² Laboratory of Veterinary Vaccine and Biological Products, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Chiang Mai University, Muang, Chiang Mai, Thailand.
³ Department of Food Animal clinics, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Chiang Mai University, Muang, Chiang Mai, Thailand.
⁴ Department of Veterinary Bioscience and Veterinary Public Health, Chiang Mai University, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Muang, Chiang Mai, Thailand.
⁵ Excellence Center in Veterinary Bioscience, Chiang Mai University, Muang, Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Abstract

Background: Hemoparasites, such as Babesia spp., Theileria spp. and Anaplasma spp., can negatively affect the health of farm animals resulting in significant losses in production. These losses inherently affect the economics of the livestock industry. Since increases in the severity of vector-borne diseases in the southeast Asian region have been reported, investigations of parasitic epidemiology in Thailand will be necessary to improve the existing parasite control strategies for blood parasitic infections. This study aims to investigate incidences of bovine hemoparasites throughout central and northern Thailand by focusing on areas of high-density cattle populations.

Methods: Blood parasitic infections among cattle were screened and identified by microscopic examination. Anemia status was then determined by evaluation of the packed cell volume (PCV) of each animal. Furthermore, blood parasites were detected and identified by genus and species-specific primers through the polymerase chain reaction method. Amplicons were subjected to DNA sequencing; thereafter, phylogenetic trees were constructed to determine the genetic diversity and relationships of the parasite in each area.

Results: A total of 1,066 blood samples were found to be positive for blood parasitic infections as follows: 13 (1.22%), 389 (36.50%), and 364 (34.15%) for Babesia bovis, Theileria orientalis, and Anaplasma marginale, respectively. Furthermore, multiple hemoparasitic infections in the cattle were detected. The hematocrit results revealed 161 hemoparasitic infected samples from 965 blood samples, all of which exhibiting indications of anemia with no significant differences. Sequence analysis of the identified isolates in this study revealed that B. bovis rap-1, four separate clades of T. orientalis msps, and A. marginale msp4 exhibited considerable sequence similarity to homologous sequences from isolates obtained from other countries. Sequence similarity ranged between 98.57-100%, 83.96-100%, and 97.60-100% for B. bovis rap-1, T. orientalis msps, and A. marginale msp4, respectively.

Conclusion: In this study, the analyzed incidence data of cattle hemoparasitic infection in Thailand has provided valuable and basic information for the adaptation of blood-borne parasitic infections control strategies. Moreover, the data obtained from this study would be useful for future effective parasitic disease prevention and surveillance among cattle.

Keywords: Anaplasma spp.; Babesia spp.; Cattle; Hemoparasites; Thailand; Theileria spp..

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Anaplasmosis* / epidemiology
Animals
Animals, Domestic / genetics
Babesiosis* / epidemiology
Cattle
Cattle Diseases* / epidemiology
Incidence
Phylogeny
Sequence Analysis, DNA / veterinary
Thailand / epidemiology
Theileria* / genetics
Theileriasis* / epidemiology

Grants and funding

This project was funded by the National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT), grant no. NRCT5-RSA63004. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.