Anaplasma marginale is the most prevalent tick-borne haemoparasite of cattle and causes huge economic losses to the dairy industry worldwide. This study aimed to determine the occurrence of A. marginale infection in blood and tick samples collected from livestock animals in the districts located in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), Pakistan. A total of 184 blood and 370 tick samples were included in this study. It has never been reported that sheep, goats, and cattle in Tank, Ghulam Khan, Birmil and Miran Shah areas were infected with A. marginale. All samples of blood and ticks were collected through random sampling from March 2021 to January 2022 from cattle, sheep and goats and screened through PCR for anaplasmosis by using primer pairs of Anaplasma spp. Three hundred and seventy ticks were collected from infested hosts (120/184, 64.21%). Among the four morphologically identified tick species, the highest occurrence was recorded for Rhipicephalus sanguineus (n=138, 37.29%), followed by Rhipicephalus microplus (n=131, 35.4%), Rhipicephalus annulatus (n=40, 10.81%), Hyalomma anatolicum (n=31, 8.37%), and Hyalomma marginatum (n=30, 8.1%). The occurrence of female tick was highest (n=160, 43.24%), followed by nymphs (n=140, 37.38%) and males ticks (n=70, 18.9%). Among these ticks, A. marginale was detected in female ticks of R. microplus, and R. sanguineus. Molecular identification of A. marginale was confirmed in 120 out of 184 blood samples and 6 out of 74 tick samples. Overall, occurrence of A. marginale in blood and tick samples was found to be 65.21% and 8.1% respectively. Species-wise occurrence in blood samples of goats were 71.11% followed by sheep 68.31% and cattle 50%. Specie-wise occurrence of A. marginale in tick samples of cattle were 12.5% followed by goats 6.89%. The obtained sequence showed similarity with A. marginale reported from Kenya and USA. We report the first PCR based detection of A. marginale infection in blood samples and in R. sanguineus ticks of goats simultaneously.
Ticks are important ectoparasites which transmit many disease pathogen to animals; these are labelled tick borne diseases (TBD). Tick induced damage to skin and hides has not received attention. Skin and hides are important for the leather product industry, particularly in Pakistan. Due to economic importance and financial loss by ticks in leather industry, the present study was designed to investigate skin and hides damage due to ticks at microscopic level. Naturally tick infested tissue samples of hides and skin were collected from slaughter houses. Primary lesions at tick feeding sites showed epidermal edema with adjacent dermal edema. Histopathological examination revealed degeneration of epidermal layer down to the basal layer. Epidermal and sub dermal layers often displayed focal necrosis infiltrated with neutrophils and mononuclear cells at tick bite sites. Hyperplasia of keratinocytes was also seen at sites of ruptured epidermis. Quality of leather depends upon the grain (Outer) surface skin/hides. Ticks infestation damages the outer surface, due to bites, inflammatory responses, and secondary bacterial infections that often become established at feeding sites. Control of ticks should be given consideration to reduce infestation induced losses in the leather industry in Pakistan.
Liver fluke disease (fascioliasis) is an important parasitic disease found worldwide affecting sheep, goats, cattle and buffalo, as well as other domestic ruminants. The common causative agents are Fasciola hepatica and F. gigantica which require various species of Lymnaea, fresh water snails, as their intermediate hosts. The epidemiology of the disease and its prevalence in Malaysia is mentioned briefly. The disease causes considerable impact on the economy of the livestock industry. The economic losses consist of costs of anthelmintics, drenches, labor, liver condemnation at meat inspection; and losses in production due to mortality, reduction in meat, milk and wool production; and reduction in growth rate, fertility and draught power. The disease also has public health significance, causing human fascioliasis and "halzoun".
To shed light on the importance of tick-borne diseases, especially in farm animals that often contact with farm workers, this study aimed to identify ticks and tick-borne pathogens in ruminants in Malaysia. Accordingly, specimen collection was conducted across Peninsular Malaysia yielded a total of 1241 ticks collected from 674 farm ruminants. Among these, four tick species were identified, with Rhipicephalus microplus being the most prevalent, constituting 99.03 % of the total tick population. Analysis of 130 tick pools revealed three positives for Borrelia. BLAST analyses of the flaB and 16S rRNA genes revealed high similarities to Borrelia theileri, ranging from 98.78 to 100 % for flaB and 99.23-99.45 % for 16S rRNA. These results align with the phylogenetic trees, where sequences from both genes clustered together with B. theileri, further supporting this identification. No Rickettsia and Bartonella bacteria were detected. This study represents the first occurrence of B. theileri in R. microplus in Malaysia.
Hard ticks taken from the Japanese serow, Capricornis crispus, in Yamagata Prefecture, Honshu, harboured infective larvae of onchocercid filariae after incubation from the 22nd to the 158th day. Haemaphysalis flava and H. japonica contained one to eight filarial larvae; females, males and a nymph of the ticks were infected. The 44 infective larvae recovered were 612-1,370 μm long, and 11 of them, 930-1,340 μm long, were studied in detail. The larvae possessed the morphologic characteristics of the larvae of the genus Cercopithifilaria, namely an oesophagus with a posterior glandular part, no buccal capsule and a long tail with three terminal lappets. Five types (A to E) of infective larvae were identified based on the morphologic characteristics. While to date five species of Cercopithifilaria have been described from the Japanese serow, a specific identification of the larvae found in this study was generally not possible. Only type E larvae could be tentatively assigned to Cercopithifilaria tumidicervicata, as they had a cervical swelling similar to that of the adults of this species. A key for the identification of the five larval types is presented. The study presents circumstantial evidences indicating that H. flava and H. japonica may transmit Cercopithifilaria spp. to Japanese serows. It also suggests the possibility that such filarial larvae will be found in hard ticks anywhere, because Cercopithifilaria is distributed worldwide, though this genus generally goes unnoticed, as its microfilariae occur in the skin, not in the blood, of host animals.
This paper reports the occurrence of helminth and protozoan infections on small ruminants from eight farms situated in Kinta and Perak Tengah district, Perak. The results of this survey indicate that helminthiasis and coccidiosis is rampant in sheep and goat farms. Several anthelmintics have been used for the control of helminths. The smallholders depended on health and extention services from the State Veterinary Department. This survey is part of an ongoing programme by the Department of Veterinary Services to upgrade services and report the current status of parasitic diseases in the state.