Phylogenetic study of theileria ovis and theileria lestoquardi in infected sheep and it is associated ticks in mosul city, Iraq

Abstract

This is a first molecular report investigate the phylogenic analysis of Theileria spp. in sheep and it's infested ticks in Mosul city-Iraq. A total of 185 blood samples were collected from sheep in different areas of Mosul city. A sixty five Ixodid ticks were also collected from different parts of infected animals. The overall prevalence of Theileria spp. was 52.4% (97 out of 185), for Theileria ovis it was 9.7%, Theileria lestoquardi it was 20% and mixed infection it was 22.7% in sheep in Mosul city, based on conventional-PCR and multiplex-PCR techniques. the infestation rat of Ixodid ticks on sheep was 11.8% (22 out of 185) and three species of Ixodid ticks (n=65) were identified and classified: Hyalomma anatolicum anatolicum 37 (56.9%), Rhipicephalus sanguineus 16 (24.6%), Rh. turanicus 12 (18.4%) based on microscopic examination. BLASTn individual sequencing analysis of six sequences of 18S rRNA gene, composing sequences of T. ovis (n=3) (One extracted from sheep blood and two extracted from engorged female ticks), and sequences of T. lestoquardi (n=3) (One extracted from sheep blood and two extracted from engorged female ticks).