Molecular Identification of Isolated from Arabian Camels () in Riyadh and Al-Qassim, Saudi Arabia.

We analyzed the blood from 400 one-humped camels, () in Riyadh and Al-Qassim, Saudi Arabia to determine if they were infected with the parasite spp. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) targeting the internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS1) gene was used to detect the prevalence of spp. in the camels. () was detected in 79 of 200 camels in Riyadh, an infection rate of 39.5%, and in 92 of 200 camels in Al-Qassim, an infection rate of 46%. Sequence and phylogenetic analyses revealed that the isolated was closely related to the that was detected in in Egypt and the strain ribosomal RNA gene identified from buffalo in Thailand. A BLAST search revealed that the sequences are also similar to those of from beef cattle in Thailand and to 18S ribosomal RNA from pigs in Nigeria.