Serosurvey of ovine and caprine theileriosis with ELISA in China

Abstract

Ovine and caprine theileriosis is caused by the parasitic genus Theileria, which is transmitted by ticks, and causes substantial losses to sheep. We conducted a sero-epidemiological study of ovine and caprine theileriosis in China, using an enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). In total, 2351 field blood samples were collected from 21 provinces in China, and the seroprevalence of theileriosis was estimated. The results showed that the highest prevalence was 76.0% in Gansu Province, the mean prevalence was 41.0%, and there was no detection of Theileria infection in Hebei Province. The obvious differences were found among the provinces in China, especially in Northwestern China. Effective measures should be adopted to prevent theileriosis of small ruminants in China. To our knowledge, this is the first report from China of a national serosurvey of theileriosis of small ruminants using ELISA.