Abstract—The subclinical Theileriosis in sheep flocks of Lorestan province - west of Iran- is common in warm seasons and is transmitted by hard ticks. The present study was conducted in order to identify vector ticks via PCR method in this region. Among five different regions and during the April-July period of 2012, 265 cases of hard ticks were collected from the ear and the body surface of anemic and feverish sheep, and 150 blood smears were taken from their ear veins. DNA samples were extracted from salivary glands of the collected ticks and PCR test was done using a pair of specific primers in order to amplify the 520 bp DNA fragment of SSu rRNA gene of T. ovis. The microscopic examination of blood smears demonstrated that 19 samples (12.66%) were infected by Piroplasmic forms of Theileria species. The PCR revealed that 37 cases of 152 Rhipicephalus sanguineus (24.34%) were positive for T. ovis genum including 21 (30.88%) female and 16 (19.04%) male ticks while the other ticks were not infected by this parasite. From 265 tick samples, R. sanguineus and Haemaphysalis punctata had the highest (57.35%) and the lowest (3/01%) frequencies, respectively. Two of the PCR products were sequenced. The resulting sequences and the Nocleotid sequence of T.ovis gene of Mazandaran were identical. Since R. sanguineus was the only tick infected by T.ovis, it seems that it is the primary vector of this parasite in the sheep in Lorestan. 
 

Index Terms—theileria ovis, rhipicephalus sanguineus, rhipicephalus bursa, Lorestan, Iran

Cite: Saeid Hashemi and Majid Goodarzi, "Identification of Vector Ticks Naturally Infected by Theileria Ovis Using PCR Method in Lorestan Province, West of Iran," Journal of Advanced Agricultural Technologies, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 30-33, March 2016. Doi: 10.18178/joaat.3.1.30-33