Díaz-Sánchez Adrian Alberto, Pires Marcus Sandes, Estrada Carlos Yrurzun, Cañizares Ernesto Vega, Del Castillo Domínguez Sergio Luis, Cabezas-Cruz Alejandro, Rivero Evelyn Lobo, da Fonseca Adivaldo Henrique, Massard Carlos Luiz, Corona-González Belkis
National Center for Animal and Plant Health (CENSA), Carretera de Tapaste y Autopista Nacional, km 22 1/2, 32700, San José de las Lajas, Mayabeque, Cuba.
Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRRJ), BR 465, km 7, Seropédica, Rio de Janeiro, 23890-000, Brazil.
Parasitol Res. 2018 Oct;117(10):3109-3118. doi: 10.1007/s00436-018-6005-5. Epub 2018 Jul 23.
Equine piroplasmosis is a disease of Equidae, including horses, donkeys, mules, and zebras, caused by either Theileria equi or Babesia caballi. This disease represents a serious problem for the horse industry and its control is critical for the international trade of horses. The objective of the present study was to detect B. caballi and T. equi infections in horses reared in western Cuba. Blood samples from 100 horses were tested for the presence of piroplasms by using Giemsa-stained blood smears and nested PCR (nPCR) assays targeting merozoite antigen genes of B. caballi (bc48) and T. equi (ema-1). All animals were inspected for the detection of tick infestation and tick specimens were collected for species identification. Erythrocyte inclusions were observed in 13 (13%) of the analyzed samples. nPCR analysis showed that 25 (25%) samples were positive for B. caballi, 73 (73%) for T. equi, and 20 (20%) showed dual infections. Only one tick species was found infesting horses, Dermacentor nitens. In addition, three nearly full-length sequences of T. equi 18S rRNA gene were obtained and subjected to phylogenetic analyses. This study reports a high prevalence of T. equi and B. caballi single and coinfections in horses in western Cuba. Molecular analysis of the 18S rRNA gene of T. equi suggested that different genotypes of this hemoparasite circulate in Cuba. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report describing the molecular detection of B. caballi and T. equi in horses in Cuba.
马焦虫病是马科动物（包括马、驴、骡和斑马）的一种疾病，由马泰勒虫或驽巴贝斯虫引起。这种疾病对养马业来说是一个严重问题，其防控对马匹的国际贸易至关重要。本研究的目的是检测古巴西部饲养马匹中的驽巴贝斯虫和马泰勒虫感染情况。通过使用吉姆萨染色血涂片和针对驽巴贝斯虫（bc48）和马泰勒虫（ema-1）裂殖子抗原基因的巢式PCR（nPCR）检测法，对100匹马的血液样本进行了梨形虫检测。检查所有动物是否有蜱虫寄生，并收集蜱虫标本进行种类鉴定。在13份（13%）分析样本中观察到红细胞内含物。nPCR分析表明，25份（25%）样本驽巴贝斯虫呈阳性，73份（73%）马泰勒虫呈阳性，20份（20%）显示双重感染。仅发现一种蜱虫寄生在马身上，即微小扇头蜱。此外，获得了马泰勒虫18S rRNA基因的三个近乎全长的序列，并进行了系统发育分析。本研究报告了古巴西部马匹中马泰勒虫和驽巴贝斯虫单一感染及混合感染的高流行率。对马泰勒虫18S rRNA基因的分子分析表明，这种血液寄生虫的不同基因型在古巴传播。据我们所知，这是首次描述在古巴马匹中对驽巴贝斯虫和马泰勒虫进行分子检测的报告。
