1Department of Animal Biotechnology
Department of Veterinary Parasitology, College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry, AAU, Anand -388 001, India
*Corresponding Author e- mail: cgjoshi@aau.in
Online published on 5 May, 2014.
Bovine tropical theileriosis caused by Theileria annulata is a tick-borne disease of great economic importance in India. The present study was undertaken to detect the theilerosis in cattle and buffaloes by Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). In this study, a total of 116 samples were collected from infected as well as apparently healthy cattle and buffaloes. Screening of blood smears by Giemsa staining detected 15 samples (12.93 percent) positive for Theileria piroplasms. However, the PCR based screening using the specific primers from the major merozoite-piroplasm surface antigen sequence of T. annulata (Tams1) gene detected 74 samples (63.79 percent) positive for T. annulata which included 59 samples found negative by Giemsa staining. Our study suggests that the PCR based screening is more sensitive and accurate method for diagnosis of tropical theileriosis in cattle and buffaloes.
Theileria annulata, PCR, Cattle, Buffalo
