Semi-nested polymerase chain reaction-based detection of Babesia spp. in small ruminants from Northwest of Iran

Vet World Vol.11 March-2018 Article-2

Research Article

Veterinary World, 11(3): 268-273

https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2018.268-273

Ahad Bazmani¹, Amir Abolhooshyar², Abbas Imani-Baran², and Hamid Akbari³

1. Infectious and Tropical Diseases Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
2. Department of Pathobiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran.
3. Department of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran.

Background and Aim: The present study aimed to detect Babesia ovis and Babesia motasi in the blood samples of sheep and goats from Northwest of Iran by the semi-nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique.

Materials and Methods: A total of 166 whole blood samples (including 123 sheep and 43 goats) were collected. In the first stage, the PCR was performed to amplify a piece of 18S rRNA gene of Babesia and Theileria genera. Then, semi-nested PCR was carried out on all PCR products to differentiate B. ovis and B. motasi.

Results: The PCR indicated that totally, 19 (11.44%) out of 166 samples were positive for Babesia or Theileria spp. The semi-nested PCR showed that 38 samples (22.89%) were positive only for B. ovis. No significant association was found between the infection rate of B. ovis and age, gender and species of animals.

Conclusion: In the present study, there was no evidence for B. motasi infection in small ruminants from Northwest of Iran. Therefore, B. ovis was the main causative agent of ovine Babesiosis in this region. Keywords: Babesia motasi, Babesia ovis, Iran, semi-nested polymerase chain reaction, small ruminants.

Keywords: Babesia motasi, Babesia ovis, Iran, semi-nested polymerase chain reaction, small ruminants.

How to cite this article: Bazmani A, Abolhooshyar A, Imani-Baran A, Akbari H (2018) Semi-nested polymerase chain reaction-based detection of Babesia spp. in small ruminants from Northwest of Iran, Veterinary World, 11(3): 268-273.

Received: 02-10-2017 Accepted: 24-01-2018 Published online: 03-03-2018

Corresponding author: Abbas Imani-Baran E-mail: a.imani@tabrizu.ac.ir

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2018.268-273

Copyright: Bazmani, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.