Tick Infestation and Piroplasm Infection in Barbarine and Queue Fine de l’Ouest Autochthonous Sheep Breeds in Tunisia, North Africa
Abstract
:Simple Summary
Abstract
1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Study Region and Sampling Design
2.2. Animals
2.3. Sampling and Data Collection
2.4. Hematology
2.5. Molecular Analysis for Piroplasms Detection
2.5.1. DNA Extraction
2.5.2. Polymerase Chain Reactions
2.6. Statistical Analyses
2.7. Ethics Statement
3. Results
3.1. Overall, Collected Tick Population and Overall Parasitological Indicators
3.2. Breed Differences in Tick Infestation
3.2.1. Tick Species Distribution
3.2.2. Tick’s Infestation Prevalence According to Sheep Breed and Region
3.3. Molecular Prevalence of Piroplasms
4. Discussion
4.1. Breed Differences
4.2. Sheep Ticks and Agroecological Variability
4.3. Dynamic of Sheep Ticks under Climate Change Context
5. Conclusions
Supplementary Materials
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Region | Locality (District) | Number of Surveyed Farms (Total Number of Animals) | Number of Barbarine Sheep in the Region/Total Number of Barbarine Sheep (%) | Number of QFO Sheep in the Region/Total Number of QFO Sheep (%) |
---|---|---|---|---|
Northeast | Mornaguia (Manouba) and Saouef (Zaghouan) | 6 (164) | 123/288 (42.7) | 41/151 (27.1) |
Northwest | Fernana (Jendouba) and Sebeitla (Kasserine) | 6 (162) | 119/288 (41.3) | 43/151 (28.5) |
Southeast | Bir Ali (Sfax) and Bir Lahmar (Tataouine) | 5 (113) | 46/288 (16) | 67/151 (44.4) |
Overall | 17 (439) | 288 (100) | 151 (100) |
Primers | Sequences (5′------3′) | Author |
---|---|---|
1A | AACCTGGTTGATCCTGCCAGT | [47] |
564R | GGCACCAGACTTGCCCTC | |
RLB-F | GAGGTAGTGACAAGAAATAACAATA | [48] |
RLB-R | TCTTCGATCCCCTAACTTTC |
Tick Species | Number of Ticks in the Breed (%) a | ||
---|---|---|---|
Barbarine | Queue Fine de l’Ouest | Overall (%) | |
Rhipicephalus sanguineus s.l. | 487 (75.4) | 159 (24.6) | 646 (91.4) b |
Hyalomma impeltatum | 31 | 0 | 31 (4.4) |
Hyalomma excavatum | 15 | 0 | 15 (2.1) |
Hyalomma marginatum | 5 | 0 | 5 (0.7) |
Hyalomma dromedarii | 4 | 0 | 4 (0.6) |
Rhipicephalus bursa | 2 | 1 | 3 (0.4) |
Rhipicephalus annulatus | 2 | 0 | 2 (0.3) |
Haemaphysalis sulcata | 1 | 0 | 1 (0.1) |
Overall (%) | 547 (77.4) c | 160 (22.6) | 707 (100) |
Variables | April 2018 | July 2018 | October 2018 | January 2019 | April 2019 | July 2019 | October 2019 | January 2020 | p |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Northeast | |||||||||
Mean temperature (°C) (Min–Max) a | 15.05 (9.7–207) | 27.34 (21.09–34.25) | 21.48 (17.2–26.73) | 10.11 (6.44–14.04) | 13.58 (8.93–18.86) | 27.96 (21.65–34.32) | 21.61 (16.68–27.03) | 9.87(6.12–13.99) | N.A. |
Cumulative precipitation (mm) b | 16.44 | 0.5 | 8.02 | 17.12 | 44.32 | 1.58 | 19.39 | 14.43 | |
Northwest | |||||||||
Mean temperature (°C) (Min–Max) | 12.48 (7.31–18.23) | 22.66 (17.43–30.53) | 20.21 (15.93–25–45) | 8.02 (3.91–11.27) | 11.17 (6.81–15.99) | 27.48 (20.72–33.99) | 20.80 (15.04–27.07) | 9.71 (6.36–13.16) | N.A. |
Cumulative precipitation (mm) | 40.44 | 4.22 | 43.99 | 33.06 | 56.06 | 1.73 | 15.37 | 17.5 | |
Southeast | |||||||||
Mean temperature (°C) (Min–Max) | 17.62 (12.12–23.35) | 28.7 (22.69–35.26) | 23.55 (19.11–28.71) | 10.97 (13.07–15.52) | 15.05 (11.06–19.57) | 30.9 (24.88–37.80) | 24.4 (19.9–29.63) | 10 (6.83–13.52) | N.A. |
Cumulative precipitation (mm) | 6 | 1.6 | 19.8 | 5 | 27.17 | 0 | 14.08 | 16.93 | |
Infestation prevalence c | 53/439 | 44/382 | 18/362 | 6/341 | 60/269 | 98/288 | 23/272 | 19/258 | <0.001 f |
(% ± SE) | (12.1 ± 1.6) | (11.5 ± 1.6) | (5 ± 1.1) | (1.8 ± 0.7) | (22.3 ± 2.5) | (34 ± 2.8) | (8.5 ± 1.7) | (7.4 ± 1.6) | |
Mean intensity d | 129/53 | 61/44 | 20/18 | 9/6 | 135/60 | 215/98 | 92/23 | 46/19 | <0.001 g |
(mi ± SE) | (2.43 ± 0.2) | (1.39 ± 0.09) | (1.11 ± 0.07) | (1.5 ± 0.22) | (2.25 ± 0.22) | (2.19 ± 0.19) | (4 ± 1.16) | (2.42 ± 0.3) | |
Mean abundance e | 129/439 | 61/382 | 20/362 | 9/341 | 135/269 | 215/288 | 92/272 | 46/258 | <0.001 h |
(ma ± SE) | (0.29 ± 0.05) | (0.16 ± 0.02) | (0.06 ± 0.01) | (0.03 ± 0.01) | (0.5 ± 0.07) | (0.75 ± 0.09) | (0.34 ± 0.11) | (0.18 ± 0.04) |
April 2018 | July 2018 | October 2018 | January 2019 | April 2019 | July 2019 | October 2019 | January 2020 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mean Tick Abundance | ||||||||
April 2018 | 1 | 0.35 | 0.009 | 0.003 | 0.08 | 0.001 | 1 | 0.61 |
July 2018 | - | 1 | 0.87 | 0.67 | 0.001 | 0.001 | 0.47 | 1 |
October 2018 | - | - | 1 | 1 | 0.001 | 0.001 | 0.028 | 0.87 |
January 2019 | - | - | - | 1 | 0.001 | 0.001 | 0.011 | 0.7 |
April 2019 | - | - | - | - | 1 | 0.445 | 0.196 | 0.001 |
July 2019 | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | 0.001 | 0.001 |
October 2019 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | 0.69 |
January 2020 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 |
Mean Tick Intensity | ||||||||
April 2018 | 1 | 0.15 | 0.27 | 0.96 | 1 | 0.96 | 0.15 | 1 |
July 2018 | - | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0.24 | 0.54 | 0.001 | 0.68 |
October 2018 | - | - | 1 | 1 | 0.37 | 0.64 | 0.002 | 0.65 |
January 2019 | - | - | - | 1 | 0.98 | 0.99 | 0.24 | 0.98 |
April 2019 | - | - | - | - | 1 | 0.99 | 0.08 | 1 |
July 2019 | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | 0.009 | 1 |
October 2019 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | 0.32 |
January 2020 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 |
April 2018 | July 2018 | October 2018 | January 2019 | April 2019 | July 2019 | October 2019 | January 2020 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Region | ||||||||
NE | N.S. | N.S. | N.S. | N.S. | 0.001 | 0.003 | N.S. | N.S. |
NW | N.S. | N.S. | <0.001 | N.S. | <0.001 | N.S. | N.S. | <0.001 |
SE R | ||||||||
Breed | ||||||||
Barbarine | N.S. | <0.001 | 0.02 | N.S. | <0.001 | <0.001 | <0.001 | 0.001 |
QFO R | ||||||||
Region × Breed | ||||||||
NE × Barbarine | N.S. | <0.001 | N.S. | N.S. | <0.001 | 0.001 | 0.01 | N.S. |
NE × QFO R | ||||||||
NW × Barbarine | <0.001 | |||||||
NW × QFO R | ||||||||
SE × Barbarine | ||||||||
SE × QFO R |
Sampling Round | Number of Theileria-Babesia Positive Sheep/Number of Examined Sheep (% ± SE) | |
---|---|---|
Barbarine | Queue Fine de L’Ouest | |
April 2018 | 2/286 (0.7 ± 0.5) a | 0/152 (0) b |
July 2018 | 12/242 (4.96 ± 1.4) | 0/128 (0) |
October 2018 | 13/219 (5.94 ± 1.6) | 0/129 (0) |
January 2019 | 8/208 (3.85 ± 1.3) | 0/113 (0) |
Total | 35/955 (3.66 ± 0.6) | 0/522 (0) |
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Khamassi Khbou, M.; Rouatbi, M.; Romdhane, R.; Sassi, L.; Jdidi, M.; Haile, A.; Rekik, M.; Gharbi, M. Tick Infestation and Piroplasm Infection in Barbarine and Queue Fine de l’Ouest Autochthonous Sheep Breeds in Tunisia, North Africa. Animals 2021, 11, 839. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11030839
Khamassi Khbou M, Rouatbi M, Romdhane R, Sassi L, Jdidi M, Haile A, Rekik M, Gharbi M. Tick Infestation and Piroplasm Infection in Barbarine and Queue Fine de l’Ouest Autochthonous Sheep Breeds in Tunisia, North Africa. Animals. 2021; 11(3):839. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11030839
Chicago/Turabian StyleKhamassi Khbou, Médiha, Mariem Rouatbi, Rihab Romdhane, Limam Sassi, Mohamed Jdidi, Aynalem Haile, Mourad Rekik, and Mohamed Gharbi. 2021. "Tick Infestation and Piroplasm Infection in Barbarine and Queue Fine de l’Ouest Autochthonous Sheep Breeds in Tunisia, North Africa" Animals 11, no. 3: 839. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11030839