Volume: 56 Issue: 1
Year: 2025, Page: 32-39, Doi: https://doi.org/10.51966/jvas.2025.56.1.32-39
Received: Sept. 5, 2024 Accepted: Nov. 19, 2024 Published: March 31, 2025
Oriental theileriosis caused by protozoan parasite Theileria orientalis, is one of the most economically important diseases of cattle in humid tropics. The pathogenesis of disease is primarily caused by extravascular haemolysis, which leads to anaemia in infected cattle. This study investigated the relationship between parasitaemia levels, clinical signs and haematological parameters in cattle infected with T. orientalis. By examining haematological parameters like Total Erythrocyte Count (TEC), Total Leucocyte Count (TLC), Haemoglobin (Hb), Platelet Count, Volume of Packed Red Cells (VPRC), Mean Corpuscular Volume (MCV), Mean Corpuscular Haemoglobin (MCH) and Mean Corpuscular Haemoglobin concentration (MCHC), a significant correlation between parasitaemia and haematological parameters were observed. A significant negative correlation was observed between level of parasitaemia and TEC (r= -0.158, p<0.05) as well as VPRC (r= -0.158, p<0.05). Conversely, a highly significant positive correlation was noted between level of parasitaemia and TLC (r= 0.203, p<0.01) and MCH (r= 0.283, p<0.01). Clinical symptoms such as pyrexia, lethargy, anaemia and anorexia were also observed, clinical signs intensified with increasing parasitaemia, correlating with the haematological changes. The findings provided a comprehensive understanding of clinico-haematological alterations in different levels of parasitaemia in T. orientalis infection, which is vital for improving diagnosis, prognosis and treatment protocols in infected cattle.
Keywords: Theileriosis, parasitaemia, haematology, anaemia
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© 2025 Sunkara et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Prathyusha, S., Radhika, R., Bindu Lakshmanan, Gleeja, V.L., Syamala, K., Marykutty, T., Anjaly, S. and Justin, K.D. 2024. Clinico- haematological alterations in Theileria orientalis infection in cattle and correlation with level of parasitaemia. J. Vet. Anim. Sci. 56 (1):32-39