PREVALENZA DI THEILERIA ANNULATA NELLE DIVERSE PROVINCE SICILIANE TRA IL 2011 E IL 2013

Vector-Borne Diseases (VBS) are caused by a range of etiologic agents including Theileria, Babesia, Anaplasma, Rickettsia and Ehrlichia and some of them are zoonotic. They are transmitted by hematophagus arthropods which in Sicily, due to the particular geo-climatic features, found a very favorable development conditions. In our survey, we considered the bovine theileriosis which is a parasitic disease causing serious damages to livestock in the Mediterranean area. The aim of the present study is to confirm the presence of Theileria annulata responsible of this VBD in the Sicilian territory and to identify their distribution in various provinces examined from 2011 to 2013. The survey was carried out on 742 bovine sera analyzed using IFAT to search antibodies against T. annulata and on 1560 other bovine specimens, especially whole blood, tested through molecular biology. Overall the 72.4% and the 28.2% of the samples were positive to IFAT and PCR respectively. In particular, the provinces of Palermo, Enna, Trapani, Messina and Ragusa were positive to IFAT for more than 50% of the sera tested in at least one of the years under study while only the provinces of Palermo, Enna and Messina were positive to PCR for more than 50% of the specimens due to the more relevant consistence of the farms in some provinces. We can therefore assume that the provinces of Sicily examined were often positive using at least one diagnostic method used to search T. annulata confirming the previous studies in the same area. However, the limit of this survey is related to inhomogeneity of the number of samples from some provinces, therefore, in order to have a complete epidemiological and statistically relevant picture for the region, it would be desirable to increase the sampling in the areas less investigated. In conclusion, we can affirm that the bovine theileriosis remains an endemic disease in Sicily causing important consequences on production and economic reality of the affected farms.