A Study on molecular detection of Theileria lestoquardi by PCR amplification in apparently healthy small ruminants from Five Districts of Southern Punjab

The present study was designed to detect the prevalence of theileria lestoquardi in small ruminants of southern punjab and to determine the risk factors associated with the spread of theileriosis,if any. a total of 115 blood samples from small ruminants including goat (n=66) and sheep (n=49) were collected from five sampling sites (bahawalnagar,dera ghazi khan,layyah,multan and muzaffargarh districts) in southern punjab,pakistan from randomly selected herds. data on the characteristics of the animals (species,gender,age,tick presence or absence and health status) and various herd characters (location,size,composition,dog presence or absence and tick association with the dog if present) was collected on sampling sites through questionnaire. prevalence of the t. lestoquardi was recorded to be 3.47% (n=4) through pcr amplification of their 18s rrna gene that produced a 730 base pairs dna fragment. all positive samples were sheep blood samples collected from multan indicating that sheep were more prone to this parasite (p = 0.03). it was observed that tick association with the animal was a highly significant (p = 0.00003) risk factor associated with the theileriosis in small ruminants. copyright © 2015 zoological society of pakistan.