Identification of Theileria spp. in sheep and goats from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, using molecular techniques

Dina M Metwally; Reem Alajmi; Muslimah N Alsulami; Isra M Al-Turaiki; Rewaida Abdel-Gaber; Afrah F Alkhuriji; Haleema H Albohiri; Khalil Mohamed; Hanadi B Baghdadi; Manal F El-Khadragy; Guillermo T Isaias; Saeed El-Ashram

doi:10.7717/peerj.12596

Identification of Theileria spp. in sheep and goats from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, using molecular techniques

PeerJ. 2021 Dec 10:9:e12596. doi: 10.7717/peerj.12596. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Dina M Metwally¹, Reem Alajmi², Muslimah N Alsulami³, Isra M Al-Turaiki⁴, Rewaida Abdel-Gaber^{2

5}, Afrah F Alkhuriji², Haleema H Albohiri³, Khalil Mohamed⁶, Hanadi B Baghdadi^{7

8}, Manal F El-Khadragy^{9

10}, Guillermo T Isaias¹¹, Saeed El-Ashram^{11

12

13}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt.
² Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
³ Department of Biology, College of Science, University of Jeddah, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ Department of Information Technology, College of Computer and Information Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Zoology Department, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
⁶ Epidemioligy Department, Faculty of Public Health and Health Informatics, Umm Al-Qura University, Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
⁷ Biology Department, College of Science, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
⁸ Basic and Applied Scientific Research Center, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam City, Saudi Arabia.
⁹ Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
¹⁰ Department of Zoology and Entomology, Faculty of Science, University of Helwan, Cairo, Egypt.
¹¹ Department of Poultry Science, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, USA.
¹² Faculty of Science, Kafrelsheikh University, Kafr el-Sheikh, Egypt.
¹³ College of Life Science and Engineering, Foshan University, Foshan, Guangdong Province, China.

Abstract

Background: Thileriosis is a tick -born disease caused by hemoprotozoan parasites which has global veterinary and economic implications.

Methods: Blood samples were collected from 216 sheep and 83 goats from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, were analyzed to determine whether the animals were infected with Theileria spp. parasites. The parasites were detected using a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) targeting the gene of 18S rRNA followed by sequencing.

Results: According to obtained findings, Theileria spp. were detected in sheep (57.8%, 48/83) and goats (51.9%, 112/216). Phylogenetic analysis to sequence data showed that T. ovis identified in this study were found to be closely connected to an isolate from Turkey, with 84.4-99.8% pairwise identity and 52.35-99.79% coverage.

Keywords: 18S rRNA; Polymerase chain reaction (PCR); Theileria spp..

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Researchers Supporting Project number (RSP-2021/99), King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.