A study on prevalence and molecular identification of haemoprotozoan diseases in cattle at Chittagong district

Abstract

This present survey was conducted to reveal out the prevalence through microscopic examination and molecular identification of haemoprotozoan parasitic diseases in cattle at Chittagong district, Bangladesh. A total 300 blood samples were randomly collected (150 crossbred and 150 local cattle) in three consecutive seasons (summer, rainy and winter) from four selected areas, namely Nasirabad, Patia, Bayezid and Jointika. The effects of topography, season, age and gender were tested in both crossbred and local cattle. Molecular detection technique (PCR) was performed after consequence screening by light microcopy, which exhibited that 22 samples (14 for Anaplasma sp, 6 for Babesia sp and 2 for mixed infections were positive.The overall prevalence of haemoprotozoan diseases were 9.33% in crossbred and 5.33% in local cattle, among these babesiosis, anaplasmosis were recorded 2.66% and 6.00 % in crossbred cattle and 1.33% and 3.33 % in local cattle, respectively. Anaplasmosis was common in all areas.The highest prevalence of anaplasmosis was found in Patia (9.33%) followed by Bayezid (4.00%), Nasirabad (2.67%) and Jointika (2.66%) and babesiosis was recorded in Bayezid (4.00%) followed by Jointika (2.66%) and Patia (1.33%). Moreover, haemoprotozoan diseases occurred more frequently in summer followed by rainy and winter season. Among these seasons the highest prevalence of anaplasmosis was recorded 12.00% in crossbred cattle followed by 6.00% in local cattle in summer whereas frequency of babesiosis was highest in summer which was 4.00% in crossbred cattle followed by 2.00% in local cattle. Prevalence of anaplasmosis increased significantly (P<0.05) with the increase of age in crossbred cattle. The highest prevalence of anaplasmosis was 13.72% and 6.94% in adult crossbred and local cattle, respectively. Occurrence of babesiosis was the highest in adult (5.88%) in crossbred than young (2.78%) in local cattle, respectively. It was observed that, the breed and age were important predictor of haemoprotozoan diseases. It was revealed that haemoprotozoan diseases were more common in female cattle, among these highest prevalence of anaplasmosis was recorded (6.11%) in female crossbred cattle and (4.00%) in local cattle, respectively. Positive samples were analyzed by using RNA gene based PCR technique, where 9 samples were amplified among these 4 samples (1.33%) of Babesia sp and 5 samples (1.67%) of Anaplasma sp. As this study is a new invention under these areas, further investigation is recommended with special emphasis on the identification of available vectors for better understanding of such diseases which will help to take necessary preventive measures.