Abstract
The present study was aimed to evaluate the prevalence rate of Theileria spp., especially T. annulata, in camels of Taif Governorate, Saudi Arabia. A total of 102 blood samples were collected from camels. Parasitological examination of buffy coat smear, ELISA-IgG, and PCR (targeting 16S rRNA and cytochrome b gene sequences) assays were done for T. annulata infection detection. The results report a high prevalence rate of T. annulata in the examined dromedary’s population using ELISA-IgG (32.4%), followed by targeted PCR (25.5%). Then lower detection was reported by buffy coat Giemsa stained (10.8%). Statistical analysis using one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s at P < 0.001 showed signifcant variation in values within different diagnostic tools and age categories. Both females and males were at risk of parasitic infections, but females have a higher incidence (17.6%, 15.7%, 6.8%). Young age (X≤3 years) camels were the most infected category (50.0%, 44.4%, 22.2%) according to age from elder ones. These results could be a baseline for easing a later large-scale epidemiological screening on tropical theileriosis in the camel population in Saudi Arabia.
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