Molecular detection and seasonal prevalence of Trypanosoma brucei and its effect on hematobiochemical parameters in donkeys from Dera Ghazi Khan District in southern Punjab,Pakistan

The present study was designed to report the prevalenceof trypanosoma brucei in blood samples of donkeys (n=283) collected from dera ghazi khan district in punjab (pakistan) through pcr amplification of their maxicircle kinetoplast dna (kdna) during four seasons in 2013 and to demonstrate the effect of this parasite on complete blood count (cbc) and selected parameters of serum. out of 283 blood samples,19 (6.71%) generated a 164 bp dna fragment specific for t. brucei. only 7 blood samples (2.5%) were found trypanosome sp. positive through microscopic examination of blood smears while 13 (4.6%) were found positive by microhematocrit centrifugation technique. parasite prevalence was 4.76% (3/65) in spring,8.22% (6/73) in summer,8.45% (6/71) in autumn and 5.41% (4/74) in winter,detected by pcr. analysis of results revealed no significant association of t. brucei prevalence with age (p > 0.05) and gender (p > 0.05) of animals. comparison of hematobiochemical profile revealed a significant increase in white blood cell count (p = 0.002),neutrophil count (p < 0.001),neutrophil [%] (p > 0.001) and alt (p = 0.019) while decrease in red blood cell count (p < 0.001),hemoglobin (p = 0.003),packed cell volume (p = 0.003) lymphocytes (p < 0.001) and lymphocytes [%] (p < 0.001) in t. brucei positive animals as compared to the animals where parasite was not detected in blood through pcr. we concluded that pcr is more reliable and sensitive technique for the detection of t. brucei in blood samples from donkeys than blood smear screening and microhematocrit centrifugation techniques. it is recommended to be used for the detection of this parasite in order to minimize economic losses. copyright 2016 zoological society of pakistan.