15th - 16th November 2018 / Greifswald – Insel Riems Workshop on -Borne Diseases 2018

Tick and occurence of Anaplasma phagocytophilum and piroplasms in cattle in the Republic of Serbia

Ana Vasic 1, 5 , Marion Nieder 2, Nemanja Zdravkovic 1, 3 , Jovan Bojkovski 1, Dejan Bugarski 4, Ivan Pavlovic 3, Cornelia Silaghi 5,6,7,8 1 Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Belgrade, Serbia 2 Institute of Animal Hygiene and Veterinary Public Health, University of Leipzig, Germany 3 Scientific Veterinary Institute of Serbia “Belgrade”, Serbia 4 Scientific V eterinary Institute “Novi Sad”, Serbia 5 Institute of Infectology, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Germany 6 National Center of Vector Entomology, University of Zürich, Switzerland 7 Comparative Tropical Medicine and Parasitology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany 8 Universität Greifswald, Germany

Ticks transmit diverse pathogens of cattle including intracellular bacteria of the genus Anaplasma or protozoa of the order Piroplasmida. There are little data about species distribution and prevalence of tick-borne diseases in cattle in Serbia. This study aimed at having overall information on presence of tick species on the cattle and pastures as well as some tick-borne pathogens in cattle. During May and June 2013, and EDTA blood were collected from 185 dairy cows at six locations in Serbia, and ticks were collected from four pastures. Tick species were determinated by morphological identification. The occurrence of A. phagocytophilum was investigated by serological (immunofluorescence antibody test (IFAT)) and molecular (real-time PCR) methods. Presence of piroplasm positive samples was determined by conventional PCR followed by sequencing. The results showed that the most prevalent tick species on animals was ricinus (n=167) and on the pastures Haemaphysalis punctata (n=41), followed by H. punctata (n=146) on animals and I. ricinus (n=37) on the pastures and marginatus (n=122) on animals and D. marginatus (n=2) on the pastures. Anaplasma phagocytophilum -specific antibodies were found in 4 out of 163 (2.45 %) serum samples, but 135 samples tested by real-time PCR were negative. Piroplasm DNA was found in 5 out of 135 tested samples. PCR products were sequenced and identified as a benign Theileria spp. The results indicate the presence of tick-borne pathogens and the presence of several hard tick species infesting cattle in Serbia both on animals and pastures. Key words: dairy cows, tick-borne pathogens, hard ticks, Serbia

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