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Abstract

An epidemiological survey for Theileria annulata infection was conducted in 12 selected villages around Ankara in Central Anatolia, Turkey, during the period April 1990 to January 1993. During the survey, 198 cattle of 30 local breeds, 84 Holstein-Friesian x local breeds and 84 Holstein-Friesian breed were examined for antibodies to T. annulata and the presence of the vector ticks. Four species of Hyalomma ticks were identified: Hyalomma anatolicum anatolicum, Hyalomma anatolicum excavtum, Hyalomma detritum and Hyalomma marginatum marginatum. Salivary gland staining indicated that infected adult ticks of all four species were present and, therefore, were implicated in the transmission of tropical theileriosis in the field. Generally, the Hyalomma infestation rate was low, with the heaviest infestations occurring on the older animals. Young adults and calves had very low infestation rates. Most ticks seen on cattle were adults, very few nymphs were found. The blood smear and serological examination of the 198 cattle conducted in March, before the start of the first disease season, showed that the prevalence of piroplasmosis was 11.1% (22 out of 198) and the seroprevalence of T. annulata was 10.6% (21 out of 198). Forty-three animals were then excluded from the study because they were seropositive and/or harboured piroplasms. Ninety-two seronegative animals showed piroplasmosis (92 out of 155) and 34 seronegative animals became seropositive for T. annulata (34 out of 155) during the three disease seasons. One animal became clinically ill with tropical theileriosis and required treatment. The incidence of cattle showing piroplasmosis and disease in the total study sample was 50.7% and 0.5% per disease season, respectively. The seroconversion rate of new infection with T. annulata in the total study was 14.3% per animal season. The number of cattle showing piroplasmosis was much greater than the number of seropositive cattle, which may indicate the presence of another species of Theileria. The two different management systems encountered in the study were considered to have influenced the tick infestation levels.

Survey of Anaplasma Infections in Small Ruminants from East Part of Turkey

“…Several Ixodid tick species are distributed in Turkey [19] . While I. ricinus is dominant tick species in the Black Sea region of Turkey, Hyalomma and Rhipicephalus species are dominant in the East of Turkey [10,18] . According to the literatures [9,10] , A. phagocytophilum was detected in I. ricinus in the Black Sea region and A. ovis was detected in R. bursa in the East of Turkey.…”

“…They are endemic in almost all regions of Turkey [7,8] . In small ruminants, clinical and subclinical A. ovis infections were detected in a few studies by microscopic examination [9,10] . Until 2005, in Turkey there was no report that shows the presence of A. phagocytophilum in sheep.…”

Population diversity and multiplicity of infection in Theileria annulata

“…In contrast, four species of Hyalomma ticks are responsible for the transmission of tropical theileriosis in Turkey (Aktas et al, 2004) and three of those are three-host ticks. The disease season in Turkey is between May and September, with the peak in clinical cases occurring in mid-summer, in parallel with the increase of adult Hyalomma tick burdens (Sayin et al, 2003). Further targeted studies are required to determine whether variation in MOI among sampling sites in Turkey is related to the differential distribution of tick species, varying transmission intensities or differing states of endemicity.…”

Modelling the transmission dynamics of Theileria annulata: model structure and validation for the Turkish context

“…1999; Sayin et al . 2003). The model fittings incorporating the maximum likelihood methods are fully described in Appendix II (Hilborn and Mangel, 1997).…”