• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• 제45권4호
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• pp.267-271
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• 2007

Theileria annulata, a protozoan parasite of cattle and domestic buffaloes, is transmitted by ticks of the genus Hyalomma, and causes a disease named Mediterranean or tropical theileriosis. In this research 50 cattle naturally infected with Theileria annulata were treated with the extract of the plant Peganum harmala. The treatment was continued for 5 days, the dose of the extract being 5 mg/kg per day. After the treatment, 39 cattle responded to the treatment and recovered, but 11 did not respond to the treatment and died. The recovery rate of animals treated with the extract of the plant Peganum harmala was 78%.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• 제46권4호
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• pp.223-227
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• 2008

Changes in selected blood and serum components and electrocardiography (ECG) were investigated in 20 adults (13 females and 7 males) of water buffaloes suffering from severe theileriosis. The age of all animals used in this study ranged 1.5-5yr. Theileriosis was diagnosed by observation of parasites in the peripheral blood and the presence of schizonts in lymphocytes that were provided from swollen lymph nodes. Statistically significant decreases were observed in the means of RBC, WBC, and packed cell volume (PCV) in blood of infected animals. The means levels of sodium, calcium, phosphorus, and potassium of infected animals were lower than healthy animals, but only the decrease of potassium was significant. The mean serum activities of aspartate transferase and alanine aminotransfrase were significantly higher than in un infected animals. Three cases had atrial premature beat, 2 cases had sinus tachycardia, 2 had sinus arrhythmia, and 1 had first degree of atrioventricular block in ECG. The present study showed that T. annulata infection in cattle is associated with hematological and biochemical, and ECG changes.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• 제41권3호
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• pp.141-145
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• 2003

This study was performed to investigate the prevalence of theileriosis and to compare the prevalence of this disease in Korean native cattle reared under different environmental conditions, namely, in a grazing area and a non-grazing area by polymerase chain reaction. Three hundred and one Korean native cattle (276 cows and 25 bulls) that had not received prior treatment or been vaccinated to prevent theileriosis were examined by PCR for Theileria sergenti infection from 2001 to 2002. In our study, the parasitemia range in T. sergenti-positive cattle by microscopy were from 0.1 to 3％ (mean 0.8％). In terms of mean prevalence, 204 of the 301 Korean native cattle (67.8％) were positive reaction by PCR. Our results also revealed that the infection rate among cows (70.3％) was significantly higher than that among bulls (40.0％) (p < 0.01). T. sergenti infection among the over 3 year-old-group (75％) had a significant higher prevalence than that among the less than 3 year-old-group (61.8％) (p < 0.05). Our data also showed that grazing areas (76.1％) had the significant higher prevalence than non-grazing areas (51％) (p < 0.001). In conclusion, this study demonstrates that the prevalence of T. sergenti infection is high and that its prevalence in grazing cattle is higher than that in non-grazing cattle, Therefore, life-long treatment and the development of an optimal vaccine are needed to reduce the numbers of bovine theileriosis in both grazing and non-grazing areas.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• 제37권4호
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• pp.277-283
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• 1999

To investigate the development of a subunit vaccine against theileriosis in cattle, the DNA fragments encoding piroplasm surface protein (p33) of Theileria sergenti of a Korean isolate were expressed in baculoviruses. The expressed p33 was characterized by indirect fluorescent antibody (IFA) and western blotting analysis. The expression of p33 was mainly detected on the surface of infected Sf21 cells by IFA. The immunoblotting analysis revealed the presence of a same molecular weight protein band of p33. The antigenicity of expressed polypeptide was further examined through the inoculation of a guinea pig. The sera of guinea pigs immunized with p33 expressed cell Iysate showed similar fluorescent antibody patterns and reacted with the same molecular weight protein of T. sergenti in immunoblotting analysis, thus indicating that this protein can be a promising candidate for a subunit vaccine in the future.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• 제54권1호
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• pp.39-46
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• 2016

Theileria annulata is a tick-borne intracellular protozoan parasite that causes tropical theileriosis, a fatal bovine lymphoproliferative disease. The parasite predominantly invades bovine B lymphocytes and macrophages and induces host cell transformation by a mechanism that is not fully comprehended. Analysis of signaling pathways by quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) could be a highly efficient means to understand this transformation mechanism. However, accurate analysis of qPCR data relies on selection of appropriate reference genes for normalization, yet few papers on T. annulata contain evidence of reference gene validation. We therefore used the geNorm and NormFinder programs to evaluate the stability of 5 candidate reference genes; 18S rRNA, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), ACTB (${\beta}-actin$), PRKG1 (protein kinase cGMP-dependent, type I) and TATA box binding protein (TBP). The results showed that 18S rRNA was the reference gene most stably expressed in bovine PBMCs transformed and non-transformed with T. annulata, followed by GAPDH and TBP. While 18S rRNA and GAPDH were the best combination, these 2 genes were chosen as references to study signaling pathways involved in the transformation mechanism of T. annulata.