Quantification of Acute and Chronic Theileriosis in Sheep by Quantitative PCR (qPCR)

Small ruminants theileriosis are widespread in Iraq andacute infections usually with hight mortality. However, the survived animals suffer from low production of meat and milk. Coinfection with more than Theileria sp. And/or Anaplasmosis could have an impact on the disease severity. The main finding was identifying T. lestoquardi, T. ovis , T. annulata, blood samples of infected sheep with a history of chronic theileriosis (n=48) and with acute  clinical theileriosis sign (n=24) were being collected from fields located in Babylon province (middle of Iraq) after chlinical examination and Polymerase chain reaction and real time PCR were performed for detection. Theileria. lestoquardi was the highest of these species within the acute and chronic cases. As well as, the load of this species in acute cases was significantly higher (P<0.01) to that in chronic. However, the load of T. ovis and T. annualta were similar in acute and chronic cases. Importantly, all these cases were coinfected with Anaplasma  phagocytophylum. This could be due to the infection of leukocytes meanwhile weakening of the animal’s immune system. Also, these parasites transmitted by the same tick-vector. The impact of this finding could help in disease prevention and diagnosis.