Prevalence and risk factors associated with theileria parva Infection in cattle in three regions of Tanzania
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Date
2017
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Springer Science+Business Media
Abstract
Ticks and tickborne diseases (TBDs) are serious
constraints to cattle production in Tanzania and other tropical
and subtropical countries. Among the TBDs, East Coast fever
(ECF) is the most important as it causes significant economic
losses to the cattle industry in Tanzania. However, control of
ECF in Tanzania has continued to be a challenge due to inad-
equate epidemiological information. The main objective of
this study was to determine the epidemiological situation of
Theileria parva infections in cattle kept under pastoral and
agro-pastoral farming systems in Mara, Singida, and Mbeya
regions of Tanzania. Blood samples were collected from 648
cattle in the three regions. Genomic DNA was extracted and
amplified in a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using
T. parva-specific primers targeting the 104-kD antigen
(P104) gene. In addition, information was collected on the
possible risk factors of T. parva infection (animal age, region,
animal sex, tick burden, tick control method, and frequency of
acaricide application). The prevalence of T. parva across the
three regions was 14.2%. There was variation in prevalence
among the three regions with Mara (21.8%) having a signifi-
cantly higher (p = 0.001) prevalence than the other regions.
Moreover, Mbeya exhibited relatively lower prevalence
(7.4%) compared to the other regions. Factors found to be
significantly associated with an animal being PCR positive
for T. parva were region (p = 0.001) and tick burden
(p = 0.003). Other factors were not found to be significant
predictors of being PCR positive for T. parva. The present
study showed high variation in tick burden and T. parva prev-
alence across the regions. Therefore, different strategic plan-
ning and cost-effective control measures for ticks and T. parva
infection should be implemented region by region in order to
reduce losses caused by ticks and ECF in the study area.
Description
Journal Article
Keywords
East Coast fever, Theileria parva, Tickborne diseases, Risk factors, Cattle