title: Prevalence of Trypanosoma evansi in horses in Israel evaluated by serology and reverse dot blot.
abstract: Trypanosoma evansi is the cause of surra in horses, camels and other domestic animals. Following the first outbreak of surra in horses and camels in Israel in 2006, a survey of the prevalence of the parasite in the Israeli horse population was conducted using serology, PCR followed by the reverse dot blot (RDB) technique and blood smear microscopy. In total, 614 horses from 7 regions were sampled. The CATT/T. evansi kit was used for serology for all the horses. Horses from the Arava and Dead Sea region, where the first outbreak occurred, were sampled again one year later and both samples were subjected to serology and the RDB technique. The country wide seroprevalence was 4.6% (28/614). The seroprevalence in the Arava and Dead Sea region was 6.5% (9/139) in the first sampling compared with 4.1% (5/122) in the second, whereas the prevalence of RDB-positivity was 18.7% (26/139) in the first sampling and only 0.8% (1/122) in the second. All horses were asymptomatic except for one horse from the Arava and Dead Sea region that demonstrated clinical signs of surra combined with positive serology and RDB. The results of this study indicated that surra is prevalent in most regions of the country and thus should be considered an important differential diagnosis in horses and other domestic animals in Israel with chronic weight loss, edema or neurological signs.
authors.affiliation: Veterinary Teaching Hospital, Koret School of Veterinary Medicine, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, P.O. Box 12, Rehovot 76100, Israel. berlin@agri.huji.ac.il
authors.forename: Dalia
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Berlin
authors.forename: Abed
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nasereddin
authors.forename: Kifaya
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Azmi
authors.forename: Suheir
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ereqat
authors.forename: Ziad
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Abdeen
authors.forename: Osnat
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Eyal
authors.forename: Gad
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Baneth
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004196:Disease Outbreaks / Q000662:veterinary; D006734:Horse Diseases / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006736:Horses; D015151:Immunoblotting / Q000662:veterinary*; D007557:Israel / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D012698:Serologic Tests / Q000662:veterinary*; D014345:Trypanosoma / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D014352:Trypanosomiasis / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000662:veterinary*