PATHOGENS, cilt.12, sa.8, ss.1-11, 2023 (SCI-Expanded)
Abstract: Tick-borne parasitic diseases
cause mild to severe infections among vertebrate hosts, including dogs. Species
in the genus Babesia are important
tick-borne pathogens and have worldwide distributions. Although there are data
on the prevalence and distribution of Babesia
species among dogs around the world, there is no information available in
Kyrgyzstan, according to a literature review. In this study, 337 dogs were
screened by nested PCR for the presence of the 18S small subunit ribosomal RNA (18S SSU rRNA) gene of piroplasm species. Overall prevalence was
6.23% (21/337) for Babesia/Theileria spp. DNA sequencing of
positively tested samples revealed that eighteen samples were infected with Babesia vogeli (B. vogeli) (5.34%), two samples with B. vulpes (0.59%), and one sample with Theileria ovis (T. ovis) (0.29%). The
phylogenetic analyses and nucleotide sequences in contrast with those present
in GenBank revealed that two nucleotide substitutions (594th and 627th) were
found between B. vogeli isolates,
including ours, indicating that the mutation is relatively rare. The sequences
of other pathogens obtained in this study confirmed 100% nucleotide identity
with B. vulpes and T. ovis sequences in GenBank. To the
best of our knowledge, B. vogeli, B. vulpes, and T. ovis were detected for the first time in dogs from Kyrgyzstan,
and it is thought that results will contribute to the understanding of the
epidemiology of canine tick-borne pathogens in the country.