Full Text Available

Note: Clicking the button above will open the full text document at the original institutional repository in a new window.

Molecular detection of tick-borne haemoparasites in cattle and buffalo samples from Mashonaland West and Masvingo Provinces, Zimbabwe

Dissertation (MSc (Veterinary Science))--University of Pretoria, 2022.

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Other Authors: Sibeko-Matjila, K.P. (Kgomotso Penelope)
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: University of Pretoria 2024
Subjects:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1867613471083855872
access_status_str Open Access
author2 Sibeko-Matjila, K.P. (Kgomotso Penelope)
author_browse Sibeko-Matjila, K.P. (Kgomotso Penelope)
author_facet Sibeko-Matjila, K.P. (Kgomotso Penelope)
collection Thesis
dc_rights_str_mv © 2021 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria.
description Dissertation (MSc (Veterinary Science))--University of Pretoria, 2022.
format Thesis
id oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/98515
institution University of Pretoria (South Africa)
language English
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:36:40.309Z
license_str Other — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
publishDate 2024
publishDateRange 2024
publishDateSort 2024
publisher University of Pretoria
publisherStr University of Pretoria
record_format dspace
source_str UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
spelling oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/98515 Molecular detection of tick-borne haemoparasites in cattle and buffalo samples from Mashonaland West and Masvingo Provinces, Zimbabwe Sibeko-Matjila, K.P. (Kgomotso Penelope) annicky.modirwa@up.ac.za Bhoora, Raksha V. Modirwa, Annicky A.R. UCTD Tick-borne haemoparasite diseases Babesia Mashonaland West Masvingo Provinces Dissertation (MSc (Veterinary Science))--University of Pretoria, 2022. Tick-borne haemoparasite diseases caused by Babesia, Theileria, Anaplasma and Ehrlichia species are a major constraint to the beef and dairy cattle industry, causing the most economic losses of cattle in sub-Saharan Africa. The cattle industry in Zimbabwe is continuously threatened by the spread of tick-borne diseases, which significantly affect the economy not only through morbidity and mortality but also through the costs involved in the control of diseases and treatment of sick animals. However, there is a lack of current data on the distribution of tick-borne diseases in Hurungwe district, Mashonaland West Province. The current study used molecular tools to investigate the occurrence of haemoparasites in cattle from Hurungwe district in Mashonaland West Province and buffalo from Gonarezhou National Park in Zimbabwe. DNA was extracted from 87 whole blood samples including 80 cattle and seven buffalo. The DNA samples were subjected to the Reverse-line blot hybridization (RLB) and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) analyses. Haemoparasite infections were detected in 58 samples (67 %) by RLB, and 55 % of these only hybridized to the genus-specific probes. Tick-borne haemoparasites detected by RLB included three Theileria species (T. mutans, T. velifera, and Theileria sp. sable), detected in single and mixed-parasite infections. Anaplasma centrale (3 %) and Babesia bigemina (1 %) were also detected by the RLB assay. The most commonly occurring tick-borne pathogens in cattle detected by qPCR assays were A. marginale (28 %) and B. bigemina (9 %); followed by A. centrale (8 %) and B. bovis (3 %). While in buffalo A. marginale (86 %), followed by A. centrale (14 %) were mostly detected. The results of the current study indicated that the species-specific qPCR assays used were more sensitive in detecting haemoparasites than the RLB assay. Anaplasma marginale and Babesia bovis were only detected by the species-specific qPCR assays and not by the RLB assay, which suggests that these haemoparasite infections were present at low levels thus could not be detected by RLB assay. The RLB assay suffers lower sensitivity when a sample is infected with more than one haemoparasite, especially when the levels of infection vary; the high infection will be preferentially detected over low infections of the same genus due to primer competition. Notably, T. parva or E. ruminantium was not detected from the investigated samples. The amplification and sequencing of the 16S and 18S rRNA genes from samples that hybridized exclusively to the RLB genus-specific probes yielded nine and one good quality sequences, for the 16S and 18S rRNA genes respectively. However, BLASTn analysis did not reveal hits to any haemoparasites expected to occur in cattle and buffalo. Our results did not follow the common trend for the prevalence of tick-borne diseases of cattle in Zimbabwe. Bovine theileriosis has recently been reported to be responsible for most cattle mortalities in Zimbabwe, followed by babesiosis, heartwater, and then anaplasmosis. Our results therefore suggest that the trend of occurrence of tick-borne diseases depends on the vector-parasite-host-environment dynamics for each province, thus may vary between provinces. Finally, this study confirms that buffalo in the sampled area are carriers of tick-borne diseases that pose risk to the cattle population. Veterinary Tropical Diseases MSc (Veterinary Science) Unrestricted Faculty of Veterinary Science 2024-10-07T10:02:54Z 2024-10-07T10:02:54Z 2024-04 2022 Dissertation * A2024 http://hdl.handle.net/2263/98515 en © 2021 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. application/pdf University of Pretoria
spellingShingle UCTD
Tick-borne haemoparasite diseases
Babesia
Mashonaland West
Masvingo Provinces
Molecular detection of tick-borne haemoparasites in cattle and buffalo samples from Mashonaland West and Masvingo Provinces, Zimbabwe
title Molecular detection of tick-borne haemoparasites in cattle and buffalo samples from Mashonaland West and Masvingo Provinces, Zimbabwe
title_full Molecular detection of tick-borne haemoparasites in cattle and buffalo samples from Mashonaland West and Masvingo Provinces, Zimbabwe
title_fullStr Molecular detection of tick-borne haemoparasites in cattle and buffalo samples from Mashonaland West and Masvingo Provinces, Zimbabwe
title_full_unstemmed Molecular detection of tick-borne haemoparasites in cattle and buffalo samples from Mashonaland West and Masvingo Provinces, Zimbabwe
title_short Molecular detection of tick-borne haemoparasites in cattle and buffalo samples from Mashonaland West and Masvingo Provinces, Zimbabwe
title_sort molecular detection of tick borne haemoparasites in cattle and buffalo samples from mashonaland west and masvingo provinces zimbabwe
topic UCTD
Tick-borne haemoparasite diseases
Babesia
Mashonaland West
Masvingo Provinces
url http://hdl.handle.net/2263/98515