A total of 80 no. of blood samples were collected during the study period from January 2020 to September 2020 from the slaughtered bovines. The overall incidence of hemoprotozoan infections was 33.75% (
i.e. 27/80) which was nearly the same as the previous study (
i.e. 33.30%) by
Ghosh et al., 2018 in Mizoram. But
Velusamy et al., (2014) recorded an overall prevalence of 16.64% of hemoparasitic infections in Tamil Nadu, India and in another study by
Bhatnagar et al., (2015) in Rajasthan, India, the overall prevalence was 9%. The difference in the results may be due to variations in the climatic and geographical conditions of the study areas and the managemental practices of animals. Among these,
Anaplasma sp. Infections showed the highest incidence
i.e. 18.75% (15/80) followed by
Theileria sp. Infections
i.e. 15.0% (12/80).
Kakati et al., (2015) reported that the prevalence of Anaplasmosis was 14.03% and of Theileriosis was 21.05% in Assam
. Patra et al., (2021) revealed mixed infection of both
Anaplasma sp. and
Theileria sp. in their study.
Maharana et al., (2016) also reported Anaplasma sp. infection in cattle and buffaloes of South-west Gujarat, India.
Anaplasma sp. appeared as round, oval, or disc-like deep red-colored bodies either in the centre or in the margin of erythrocytes (Fig 1A).
Theileria sp. were pleomorphic and appeared mostly round or annular inside erythrocytes (Fig 1B) whereas, in lymphocytes, they appeared as oval or comma shape
(Behera et al., 2022).
Blood samples examined microscopically for hemoprotozoan infections were further confirmed by molecular method. These samples were detected by PCR for the
rpoB gene of
Anaplasma marginale, a gene encoding a polymorphic merozoite/piroplasms surface protein (MPSP) of
Theileria orientalis. Fifteen samples were found positive for
Anaplasma marginale whereas 12 samples were positive for
Theileria orientalis. A 576 bp size of a fragment of the
rpoB gene was amplified as per
Dahmani et al., 2017 (Fig 2). A 776 bp size of a fragment of gene encoding a polymorphic merozoite/piroplasms surface protein (MPSP) of
Theileria orientalis was amplified as per
Sivakumar et al., (2012) (Fig 3).
Out of all positive blood samples for
Anaplasma marginale and
Theileria orientalis confirmed by PCR, two samples each from the above species were randomly selected for cloning and sequencing. After cloning, the clone was confirmed by colony PCR and sent for sequencing. The results of each sequence were annotated and submitted to NCBI GenBank for accession numbers of each sequence. Accession numbers for each sequence obtained from GenBank are given in the Table 1.
Phylogenetic analysis of partial
rpoB gene segments of two isolates of
Anaplasma marginale i.e. Miz-60 and Miz-61 (Fig 4) was carried out using reference sequences retrieved from the NCBI GenBank nucleotide database (Table 2). Comparative analysis was performed by use of the nucleotide sequences of
rpoB genes of Mizoram state of India with other published sequences showing percent homology and divergence (Fig 5). The sequence of
rpoB gene of two isolates from Mizoram states of India when compared with reference sequences, it was revealed that both the isolates were placed in same clade in the phylogenetic tree. These two isolates also showed close similarity with the other sequences of the same clade reported from different countries. This indicates the authenticity of our PCR-amplified
rpoB gene. Nucleotide percent identity revealed both sequences of the isolates in the present study were 99.2% similar to each other. Percent identity as compared with other species of
Anaplasma, revealing the lowest similarity
i.e. 27.3% with Candidatus
Anaplasma africae strain followed by 28.7% with
Anaplasma platys, 29.5% with
Anaplasma centrale, 33.5% with
Anaplasma ovis and 80.2% with
Anaplasma phagoytophilum. The isolates showed 94.6% similarity with the
Anaplasma marginale obtained from
Rhipicephalus bursa (Cattle tick). The rpoB gene plays an important role in better differentiation between the closest species of Anaplasma with more sequence variations
(Dahmani et al., 2017). Das et al., (2022) also confirmed the
Anaplasma marginale infections in cattle in Mizoram, India by taking the rpoB gene.
Rangapura et al., (2019) reported on the molecular characterization of
Anaplasma sp. in South India by taking the
16S rRNA gene and revealed about the existence of
A. marginale, A. bovis and A. platys infections in bovines. Other reports of molecular characterization of
MSP1, a gene of
Anaplasma marginale in different countries like North and South America, Asia, Africa, Australia and Europe revealed the genetic diversity of organisms (
de la Fuente et al., 2004).
Phylogenetic analysis was carried out for
Theileria sp. Using MPSP partial gene fragment (Fig 6) of the present two isolates when compared with other reference sequences retrieved from GenBank (Table 3). Comparative analysis was performed by use of the nucleotide sequences of MPSP genes of Mizoram state of India with other published sequences showing percent homology and divergence (Fig 7). From phylogenetic tree, it was revealed that the isolate
i.e. Miz-86 was closely placed with Type-N3 clade. Whereas the other isolate
i.e. Miz-87 belonged to Type-5 clade. Distinct variation in both types was further confirmed by only a sequence similarity of 81.3% among the isolates. When Miz-86 isolates were compared with the other reference sequence of Type-N3 revealed a similarity of 99.8 to 100%. Likewise, when the Miz-87 isolate was compared with the other reference sequences of Type-5, a similarity of 96.5 to 97.9% was observed. This confirms the detection of two genetic types of
Theileria orientalis in Mizoram. Miz-86 isolates which are in Clade of Type-N3 showed more similarity with Type-4 other (90.9%) and the least similarity with Type-6 (77.1%). Type-N3 isolates were also identified from cattle and buffalo in Mongolia, Thailand, Vietnam and Brazil. Type-5 isolates were reported from cattle, water buffalo and cattle ticks in Japan, China, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Mongolia, Brazil and Sri Lanka
(Sivakumar et al., 2012). The similarity with other types are 90.6%, 90.4%, 87.3%, 86.4%, 84.5%, 83.8%, 83.2% and 79.6% with Type-8, Type-1, Type-2, Type-N2, Type-3, Type-7, Type-5 and Type-N1 respectively. Miz-87 isolates which are in Clade of Type-5 showed more similarity with Type-4 other (86.7%) and least similarity with Type-N1 (74.3%). The similarity with other types are 85.7%, 85.3%, 84.6%, 81.3%, 80.3%, 79.8%, 79.2% and 74.9% with Type-8, Type-3, Type-1, Type-N3, Type-7, Type-N2, Type-2 and Type-6 respectively., Previously,
Aparna et al., (2011) also detected
MPSP-type 7 in clinical theileriosis in the southern part of India.
Sivakumar et al., (2012) revealed the different types of genotypic distribution among different animals as well as in different geographical regions. There was a distribution of Type- 6 in cattle and yaks not in buffalo whereas Type N1 in water buffalo
(Liu et al., 2010; Sarataphan et al., 2003). The predominance of Type-2 and 8 is mainly found in cattle populations
(Kang et al., 2012; Perera et al., 2013; Yokoyama et al., 2011). There are several genotypes of
Theileria orientalis observed in bovines. Cross-infections also observed among the bovine species which may be due to differences in transmission of vectors.