Abstract
Theileria orientalis is known to be a group of benign cattle parasites with a cosmopolitan distribution, and has been classified into 11 genotypes through MPSP gene phylogenetic analysis. In China, T. orientalis is the most prevalent Theileria species, with several genotypes, but few fatal cases have been reported. In June 2020, dairy cattle in Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province, showed clinical symptoms of piroplasmosis, causing many animals to die. Blood smears and PCR detection results confirmed T. orientalis infection with a 66.7% positive rate of collected blood samples. The MPSP sequences analysis revealed parasite genotypes 1 (Chitose) and 2 (Ikeda). Aiming to isolate the pathogens, experimental animal was infected with T. orientalis via inoculation of the positive blood samples. The results has shown that only T. orientalis genotype 2 (Ikeda) was obtained that has confirmed by MPSP and 18S rRNA sequences analysis, indicating that the Ikeda type was predominant and responsible for the disease. Although many T. orientalis genotypes are present in China, the possibility of T. orientalis genotypes 1 and 2 infections in confined dairy cattle should be considered to avoid additional economic losses.
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Funding
This study was financially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (31972706), ASTIP, CARS-37, and Jiangsu Co-innovation Center for Prevention and Control of Important Animal Infectious Diseases and Zoonoses, State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Etiological Biology Project.
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Junlong Liu, Zhi Li, Aihong Liu, and Jinming Wang. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Junlong Liu. Guiquan Guan, Jianxun Luo and Hong Yin corrected the manuscript.
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Liu, J., Li, Z., Liu, A. et al. Identification and isolation of pathogenic Theileria orientalis Ikeda genotype from confined dairy cattle, in Hebei, China. Parasitol Res 121, 395–402 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-021-07401-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-021-07401-7