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Serological and Molecular Prevalence of Babesia caballi in Apparently Healthy Horses in Israel

Babesia caballi is a tick-borne hemoparasite of equines and one of the causative agents of equine piroplasmosis, which poses a great concern for the equine industry regarding animal welfare and international horse movement. The parasite is endemic in Israel; however, its seroprevalence in the area w...

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Autores principales: Tirosh-Levy, Sharon, Mazuz, Monica L., Savitsky, Igor, Pinkas, Dana, Gottlieb, Yuval, Steinman, Amir
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8068206/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33917822
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/pathogens10040445
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author Tirosh-Levy, Sharon
Mazuz, Monica L.
Savitsky, Igor
Pinkas, Dana
Gottlieb, Yuval
Steinman, Amir
author_facet Tirosh-Levy, Sharon
Mazuz, Monica L.
Savitsky, Igor
Pinkas, Dana
Gottlieb, Yuval
Steinman, Amir
author_sort Tirosh-Levy, Sharon
collection PubMed
description Babesia caballi is a tick-borne hemoparasite of equines and one of the causative agents of equine piroplasmosis, which poses a great concern for the equine industry regarding animal welfare and international horse movement. The parasite is endemic in Israel; however, its seroprevalence in the area was never evaluated due to antigenic heterogenicity in the gene used in the commercially available kit. Blood samples were collected from 257 horses at 19 farms throughout the country and screened for the presence of anti-B. caballi antibodies via an indirect immunofluorescent antibody test (IFAT) and for the presence of parasite DNA by nested PCR. The seroprevalence of B. caballi was 69.6% and its molecular prevalence was 9.7%. The geographical area, horse’s sex, breed, housing, exposure to ticks, and specifically to Hyalomma marginatum, and co-infection with Theileria equi were found to be significantly associated with serologic exposure in univariable analysis, while the geographical area and horses’ sex remained significant in the multivariable analysis. The results of this study demonstrate a high level of exposure to B. caballi and identify important risk factors for infection. The difference between the serological and molecular prevalence, probably related to parasite clearance, is also highlighted.
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spelling pubmed-80682062021-04-25 Serological and Molecular Prevalence of Babesia caballi in Apparently Healthy Horses in Israel Tirosh-Levy, Sharon Mazuz, Monica L. Savitsky, Igor Pinkas, Dana Gottlieb, Yuval Steinman, Amir Pathogens Article Babesia caballi is a tick-borne hemoparasite of equines and one of the causative agents of equine piroplasmosis, which poses a great concern for the equine industry regarding animal welfare and international horse movement. The parasite is endemic in Israel; however, its seroprevalence in the area was never evaluated due to antigenic heterogenicity in the gene used in the commercially available kit. Blood samples were collected from 257 horses at 19 farms throughout the country and screened for the presence of anti-B. caballi antibodies via an indirect immunofluorescent antibody test (IFAT) and for the presence of parasite DNA by nested PCR. The seroprevalence of B. caballi was 69.6% and its molecular prevalence was 9.7%. The geographical area, horse’s sex, breed, housing, exposure to ticks, and specifically to Hyalomma marginatum, and co-infection with Theileria equi were found to be significantly associated with serologic exposure in univariable analysis, while the geographical area and horses’ sex remained significant in the multivariable analysis. The results of this study demonstrate a high level of exposure to B. caballi and identify important risk factors for infection. The difference between the serological and molecular prevalence, probably related to parasite clearance, is also highlighted. MDPI 2021-04-08 /pmc/articles/PMC8068206/ /pubmed/33917822 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/pathogens10040445 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Tirosh-Levy, Sharon
Mazuz, Monica L.
Savitsky, Igor
Pinkas, Dana
Gottlieb, Yuval
Steinman, Amir
Serological and Molecular Prevalence of Babesia caballi in Apparently Healthy Horses in Israel
title Serological and Molecular Prevalence of Babesia caballi in Apparently Healthy Horses in Israel
title_full Serological and Molecular Prevalence of Babesia caballi in Apparently Healthy Horses in Israel
title_fullStr Serological and Molecular Prevalence of Babesia caballi in Apparently Healthy Horses in Israel
title_full_unstemmed Serological and Molecular Prevalence of Babesia caballi in Apparently Healthy Horses in Israel
title_short Serological and Molecular Prevalence of Babesia caballi in Apparently Healthy Horses in Israel
title_sort serological and molecular prevalence of babesia caballi in apparently healthy horses in israel
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8068206/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33917822
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/pathogens10040445
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