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Turkish Journal of Veterinary & Animal Sciences

DOI

10.3906/vet-1504-87

Abstract

In order to assess the prevalence of Trypanosoma evansi, a parasitological, molecular, and serological-based investigation was carried out in randomly sampled horses (n = 375) belonging to different age groups, sexes, and localities from the district of Bahawalpur, Pakistan. The diagnostic performance of applied tests was also compared. The prevalence was recorded as 0.5% with Woo's test, 1.3% with both ITS CF/BR PCR and RoTat 1.2 PCR, and 14.4% with CATT/T.evansi. Based on CATT/T.evansi, significant differences (P ≤ 0.05) were observed for prevalence estimates according to different localities, sexes, body condition scores, and origins. A nonsignificant difference (P ≥ 0.05) was observed among different age groups and variable parity numbers. Our study declares district Bahawalpur to be a high risk area for surra and proposes the potential use of CATT/T.evansi as a field test of choice for surveys in horses. However, the status of seropositive animals should be confirmed using a more sensitive molecular tool such as the satellite DNA target. A widespread status of anti-Trypanosoma antibodies calls for control measures and further investigation of various species (camels, cattle, sheep, goats, buffaloes) inhabiting the same area to identify reservoir status.

Keywords

Horses, Trypanosoma evansi, Bahawalpur

First Page

288

Last Page

293

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