Summary
A
horse erythrocyte culture technique, partly modifying that originally
developed by Holman, was used to detect the presence of Theileria
equi strains in 12 horse and 2 mule blood samples. The animals
were placed into four groups on the basis of their case history
and laboratory test results: the mules and two horses were considered
as infected and included in the recent infection group,
four horses with a history of past infection were included in the
past infection group and four animals subjected to anti-theileria
treatment formed the treated animals group. The final
group consisted of two horses with an unknown history of infection.
Ten T. equi strains were isolated and adapted in
vitro from the fourteen animals tested: nine of these originated
from the horse samples and one from mule blood. This is the first
time that a T. equi strain isolated from a mule has
been adapted in erythrocyte cultures. All strains isolated from
horses showed growth and in vitro adaptation with a parasitaemia
peak of over 10%. Following freezing and reculturing, adapted strains
showed growth after a quiescence period of eight days. The method
proved to be effective for culturing and replicating field T. equi
strains from horses and mules. The technique was also able to
identify carriers of infection which were negative on microscopic
examination, indirect immunofluorescence and complement fixation.
Keywords
Complement
fixation, Horses, Immunofluorescence, In vitro culture, Microscopic
examination, Mules, Theileria equi. |