Objective To determine
tick infestation of domestic
ruminants and their
infection to ovine
theileriosis in northern
Iran.
Methods About 425 domestic
ruminants in Ghaemshahr city in northern
Iran were inspected for
tick infestations. Twenty
tick specimens (13
females and 7
males) of
Rhipicephalus sanguineus (R. sanguineus), the most common
tick in the study area, were tested by
PCR amplification against
18s rRNA genome of
Theileria spp using specie specific primers and then the
PCR products were sequenced for species identification by comparison with data base available in
GenBank. Results About 323
ticks were collected from 102
animals (88
sheep, 12
goats and 2
cattle). The
prevalence of
ticks infesting
animals was R. sanguineus (82.35%),
Rhipicephalus bursa (R. bursa) (0.3%),
Ixodes ricinus (I.
ricinus) (15.2%), Boophilus annulatus (B. annulatus) (1.2%), Haemaphysalis punctata (H. punctata) (0.3%) and Haemaphysalis numidiana (H. numidiana) (0.6%). Eleven (55%)
tick specimens were
PCR positive against
genome of
Theileria ovis (T.
ovis).
Sequence analysis of the
PCR products confirmed presence of T.
ovis in one R. sanguinus. Conclusions This is the first
report of
tick infection to T.
ovis in
Iran. Due to dominant
prevalence of R. sanguineus as well as its
infection to T.
ovis, it is postulated this
tick is the main vector of ovine
theileriosis in northern
Iran.