Julio V. Figueroa
National Research Center for Veterinary Parasitology, Mexico
Title: Serological and molecular prevalence of Babesia bovis, Babesia bigemina and Anaplasma marginale in water buffaloes raised in areas of high incidence of ticks
Biography
Biography: Julio V. Figueroa
Abstract
Lack of information about Mexico for corroborating hemoparasitic infections to wild ruminants led to the present study which is done to determine the prevalence of babesiosis and anaplasmosis in water buffaloes that are raised in areas of high incidence of ticks. A total of 233 blood samples were collected in four buffalo production farms in the gulf coast of Mexico. For the detection of circulating antibodies against Babesia spp. and Anaplasma spp., the sera were evaluated using the indirect fluorescent antibody test (IFAT) and the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) techniques, respectively. Molecular analysis of the samples was performed using the nested polymerase chain reaction (nPCR) using specific primers for each hemoparasite species. The overall seroprevalence rate (54.5%, 57.1% and 7.29% for Babesia bovis, Babesia bigemina and Anaplasma marginale, respectively) and molecular evidence (39.48%, 14.16% and 2.57% for B. bovis, B. bigemina and A. marginale, respectively) that were obtained as results in the present study allow to conclude that the water buffaloes, raised in the four production farms, not only demonstrate the immune system exposure of animals to these hemoparasites species, but also, that they are carriers of the infection caused by B. bovis, B. bigemina and A. marginale, as evidenced by the detection of specific circulating antibodies and hemoparasites DNA, respectively.