Piroplasms in farmed American bison, Bison bison from Romania

Alexandra Corduneanu; Marian Taulescu; Teodor Dan Ursache; Angela Monica Ionică; Andrei Daniel Mihalca

doi:10.3389/fvets.2023.1158072

Piroplasms in farmed American bison, Bison bison from Romania

Front Vet Sci. 2023 Mar 29:10:1158072. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2023.1158072. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Alexandra Corduneanu¹, Marian Taulescu^{2

3}, Teodor Dan Ursache², Angela Monica Ionică⁴, Andrei Daniel Mihalca^{5

6}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Animal Breeding and Animal Productions, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
² Department of Pathology, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
³ Synevovet, Bucharest, Romania.
⁴ Molecular Diagnosis Laboratory, Clinical Hospital of Infectious Diseases of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
⁵ Department of Parasitology and Parasitic Diseases, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
⁶ Parasitology Consultancy Group, Coruşu, Romania.

Abstract

The American bison (Bison bison) is the largest terrestrial mammal of North America, with around 350,000 individuals in the wild and in private herds but the knowledge regarding the presence of different vector-borne pathigens in these mammals is very poor. Babesia and Theileria spp. are tick-borne apicomplexan parasites which are considered to be among the most commonly found blood parasites of large ruminants, often with a high economic importance. However, the knowledge on piroplasms of bisons is extremely scarce. The aim of our study was to evaluate the presence of apicomplexan parasites in blood and tissues of farmed American bison from Romania. Overall, we tested 222 blood samples and 11 tissues samples (heart, liver, and spleen) from farmed B. bison raised for meat in Romania. All the samples were analyzed by nPCR targeting the 18SrRNA gene for piroplasmids. All positive samples were sequenced and analyzed phylogenetically. The overall prevalence of infection with piroplasmids in American bison was 1.65%, with Babesia divergens and Theileria sp. identified following sequencing. To our knowledge, this is the first report of piroplasms detected in blood and tissues of farmed B. bison from Europe. Further studies are necessary in order to obtain a better overview on the epidemiological status and clinical relevance of piroplasms in farmed American bisons.

Keywords: Babesia; Theileria; bison (North American bison); farmed; piroplasm.

Grants and funding

This study has been financed by the Department of Veterinary Pathology and the Department of Parasitology and Parasitic Diseases and was supported by the CNCS-UEFISCDI Grant Agency Romania, grant numbers PD39/2020.