A survey on the infestation of Theileria equi and Babesia caballi in Donkeys in Kurdestan Province, Iran

Blood parasites cause the disease in Equine which the most important of them is Piroplasmosis. Equine piroplasmosis is caused by Theileria equi and Babesia caballi, and it has a global expansion which known as an important threat to them. The present study is aimed at detecting piroplasm infection in Donkeys in Kurdestan province, Iran by molecular and microscopic approaches. In this study 233 blood samples, were randomly collected from Donkeys of Kurdestan province. During microscopic examination of Giemsa-stained blood smears, infection with Theileria equi and Babesia caballi was not observed. The Tbs-S/Tbs-A primer set was used for PCR amplification of Theileria equi and Babesia caballi. However , the result indicated that despite the presence of 401 and 430 bp related to the Theileria equi and Babesia caballi genome on the agarose gel as a positive control, none of them was positive for Theileria equi and Babesia caballi on a agarose gel electrophoresis.