Occurrence of tick-borne haemoparasites in cattle in the Mungwi District, Northern Province, Zambia

Publication date: Available online 16 February 2018 Source:Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases Author(s): Stephen Tembo, Nicola E. Collins, Kgomotso P. Sibeko-Matjila, Milana Troskie, Ilse Vorster, Charles Byaruhanga, Marinda C. Oosthuizen Little is known about the occurrence of haemoparasites in cattle in communal grazing areas of Mungwi District of Northern Province, Zambia. Clinical signs and post mortem lesions are pathognomonic of mixed tick-borne infections especially babesiosis, anaplasmosis and East Coast fever. The main objective of this study was to screen selected communal herds of cattle for tick-borne haemoparasites, and identify the tick vectors associated with the high cattle mortalities due to suspected tick-borne diseases in the local breeds of cattle grazing along the banks of the Chambeshi River in Mungwi District, Northern Province, Zambia. A total of 299 cattle blood samples were collected from July to September 2010 from Kapamba (n = 50), Chifulo (n = 102), Chisanga (n = 38), Kowa (n = 95) and Mungwi central (n = 14) in the Mungwi District. A total of 5,288 ticks were also collected from the sampled cattle from April to July 2011. DNA was extracted from the cattle blood and the hypervariable region of the parasite small subunit rRNA gene was amplified and subjected to the reverse line blot (RLB) hybridization assay. The results of the RLB assay revealed the presence of tick-borne haemoparasites in 259 (86.6%) cattle blood samples o...
Source: Ticks and Tick borne Diseases - Category: Zoology Source Type: research