Theileria orientalis outbreak in an organized cattle breeding farm

Theileriosis is an important tick borne disease of cattle caused by a haemoprotozoan of genus Theileria. Clinical bovine theileriosis is mainly caused by T. annulata or T. parva but the clinical disease due to T. orientalis is rare. T. orientalis mainly infect RBCs and causes "Oriental theileriosis" or Theileria-associated bovine anaemia in cattle and other livestock species. Two genotypes of T. orientalis (Chitose and Ikeda) are reported to cause severe disease in some countries. In this report, a spontaneous outbreak of Oriental theileriosis was studied in an organized Holstein-Friesian cattle breeding farm situated in the south-eastern Himalayan ranges of Himachal Pradesh State of India. Animal blood and tick samples were tested using cytological and PCR techniques. The disease episode occurred in a protracted manner spanning over 10 to 12 months and association of T. orientalis was confirmed in 93.3% of the blood and 21.7% of Rhipicephalus microplus (tick) samples. No other tick borne pathogen was detected except Anaplasma marginale in two blood samples. Haematological profiling of infected cattle showed characteristic indicators of anaemia like haemoblobin, RBC count, haematocrit value and mean corpuscular volume at either lower than normal or near the lower normal range. The prevailing persistent anaemic changes led to more severe clinical manifestations like abortion and joint inflammation. The detected T. orientalis strains and ticks species were further confirmed by nucleotide sequence analysis of 18S rRNA and 16S rRNA genes. Phylogenetically, T. orientalis strains showed clustering with other reported strains of T. orientalis from the surrounding regions. This first report of clinical Oriental theileriosis from India emphasises the importance of T. orientalis as an emerging tick borne pathogen and role of widely prevalent ticks species in disease transmission and their impact on livestock production.