Muhammad Shoaib
PAKISTAN is an agricultural country and this sector (Agriculture) is playing a vital role in its economy by providing the raw material for various industrial production systems. This sector also helps in poverty alleviation by giving considerable revenue and employment opportunities to the country’s manpower. This sector is absorbing 42.3% of the total labour force of this country. The livestock is an integral sub-sector of agriculture which plays a crucial role in the improvement of national socio-economic status. About eight million families are engaged in livestock production deriving more than 35% income from livestock production activities. It is the main source of livelihood for the rural farming community in the country.
Tick-borne diseases (TBDs) are considered a major obstacle in the health and production of cattle and buffaloes in Pakistan. Ticks are directly involved in heavy losses like blood loss, damage to skin and udder, tick worry, loss of body weight and toxin production in animals. They cause substantial losses to the livestock industry in terms of loss of hide due to condemnation of hides affected by ticks and vector-borne disease transmission. The TBDs like tropical theileriosis, bovine babesiosis and anaplasmosis are the most economically important diseases of cattle population. Tropical theileriosis (east coast fever) in cattle is caused by Theileria annulata, anaplasmosis by Anaplasma marginale and babesiosis by Babesia bovis.
Losses directly attributed to TBDs include: mortality, production losses together with the costs of veterinary diagnosis/treatment and tick control. Clinical signs, such as fever, loss of appetite, weight loss, reduced milk production, anaemia and jaundice are commonly associated with these diseases. The laboratory diagnosis was done by conventional microscopic examination of blood parasites in the stained blood smear. This technique has a problem with differentiation of the candidate parasite inside the blood cells. The causative blood parasites were confirmed by a more advanced molecular technique i.e. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Sequencing and phylogenetic analysis of these haemoparasites revealed the relevance of their genotype, their ancestral study and this provides a base data for the future control strategies. Ticks act as a vector for the transmission of babesiosis, theileriosis and anaplasmosis in livestock.
In view of the economic importance of ticks, the current project was designed to check the vectorial potential of ticks for the spread of haemoparasitic infections in cattle of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. Rhipicephalus and Hyalomma were the identified ixodid tick genera from KP. Vectorial potential of ticks for the spread of haemoparasites was checked by the examination of salivary glands of ticks through polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Theileria annulata was transmitted by Hyalomma anatolicum ticks, Babesia bovis by Rhipicephalusmicroplus ticks and Anaplasma marginale by species of Rhipicephalus ticks according to the current study.
It was confirmed that these haemoparasites are transmitted by ticks in bovines and they act as a vector for the spread of these diseases. So these haemoparasitic diseases can be controlled by controlling the ticks. This was the first study in which the vectorial potential of ticks for the spread of haemoparasites was checked in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
—The writer is associated with University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore.
