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Parasitological, Serological and Molecular Prevalence of Trypanosoma evansi among Arabian Camels (Camelus dromedaries) with Evaluation of Antitrypanosomal Drugs

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Abstract

Purpose

This study was carried out to assess the prevalence of Trypanosoma evansi infection in naturally diseased Dromedary camels in Dammam, Eastern region of Saudi Arabia. The detection of Trypanosoma evansi was performed using the parasitological, serological, and molecular diagnosis and a comparison between such methods were analyzed. In addition, evaluation of therapeutic efficacy of selected antitrypanosomal drugs, cymelarsan and quinapyrmine (aquin-1.5), was trialed for treatment of diagnosed infected cases.

Methods

A total 350 randomly selected camels were evaluated using thin blood smear (TBS), RoTat1.2 PCR and CATT/T. evansi techniques.

Results

The total prevalence was 6.9%, 7.7%, and 32.8% by TBS, RoTat1.2 PCR and CATT/T. evansi techniques, respectively. Although PCR detect T. evansi in more samples than TBS, the agreement was good (K = 0.9). Among the CATT/T. evansi results, PCR detect T. evansi in 12 and 15 CATT positive and negative camels, respectively, with low agreement (Kappa = 0.1). The use of cymelarsan and quinapyramine sulfate in the treatment of naturally infected cases demonstrated a very efficient therapeutic response.

Conclusion

It was found that

  1. 1.

    Comparing the CATT/T. evansi and PCR results, the positivity of CATT was higher than PCR detection, while the agreement was poor (K = 0.1).

  2. 2.

    Cymelarsan and aquin-1.5 proved to be effective in the treatment of naturally infected camels, but cymelarsan presented with higher effectiveness (100%) than aquin-treated camels (83.3%). a

  3. 3.

    The use of cymelarsan and CATT is recommended for disease treatment and control.

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Data Availability

The data used in this manuscript are publicly available.

Code Availability

The code will be made available under request to the corresponding authors.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the veterinarians and farm owners for their support and help in providing data and samples collection throughout the study. The authors also like to thank the staff members in the diagnostic veterinary laboratory in Dammam, ministry of environment, water, and agriculture, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Funding

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Infectious Diseases, Department of Animal Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Assiut University, PO Box 71526, Assiut, Egypt

    Ahmed Abdel-Rady

  2. Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture, Dammam, Saudi Arabia

    Ahmed Abdel-Rady & Abdullah Alhassan

  3. Parasitology Department, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Sohag University, Sohag, Egypt

    Walaa Mostafa

  4. Department of Animal Medicine (Infectious Diseases), Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, 41522, Egypt

    Mahmoud M. Elhaig

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  1. Ahmed Abdel-Rady
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  4. Mahmoud M. Elhaig
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception, design, material preparation, data collection and analysis. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Ahmed Abdel-Rady.

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The authors have declared no competing of interest.

Ethical Approval

This research did not include any experimentation on animals and all collection procedures were performed for the camels benefit and standard diagnostic purposes . All methods used in this study were carried out in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations. The study protocols were approved by the ethical committee on the animal experiments of the ministry of environment, water, and agriculture, Saudi Arabia. The study was carried out in compliance with the ARRIVE guidelines.

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Abdel-Rady, A., Alhassan, A., Mostafa, W. et al. Parasitological, Serological and Molecular Prevalence of Trypanosoma evansi among Arabian Camels (Camelus dromedaries) with Evaluation of Antitrypanosomal Drugs. Acta Parasit. 69, 465–470 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11686-023-00770-2

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