Development of a novel haemabiome tool for the high-throughput analysis of haemopathogen species co-infections in African livestock

Erhan Yalcindag, Deepali Vasoya, Johanneke D. Hemmink, Benedict Karani, Luis Hernandez Castro, Rebecca Callaby, Stella Mazeri, Edith Paxton, Tim Connelley, Phil Toye , Liam Morrison, Mark Bronsvoort

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

One of the principal limitations on livestock productivity in sub-Saharan Africa is the constraining effect of infectious diseases, including tick-borne blood pathogens. Currently, diagnostic markers for these pathogens are species or genus specific, making it challenging to implement high-throughput screening methods. The aim of this study was to develop and validate a novel high-throughput diagnostic tool capable of detecting a range of important haemopathogens in livestock. To achieve this, we developed a high-throughput diagnostic tool that can detect all species of Anaplasma, Ehrlichia, Theileria and Babesia present in a sample. The approach involves targeting the 16S/18S rDNA region by PCR and subjecting amplicons to deep sequencing, which allows for the identification of species present in a sample, and the exploration of haemopathogen communities. To validate the accuracy of this Next Generation Sequencing method, we compared the amplicon sequencing results with species-specific PCR and reverse line blot (RLB) test data of both control and field samples. The haemabiome tool demonstrated the successful resolution of positive and negative samples, and highlighted the power of this diagnostic tool in identifying multiplicity of infections. The haemabiome tool can therefore generate valuable insights regarding the understanding of the true diversity of species composition and the distribution of pathogen communities in field samples.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1-17
Number of pages17
JournalFrontiers in Veterinary Science
Volume11
Early online date20 Dec 2024
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 20 Dec 2024

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • High‐throughput amplicon sequencing
  • molecular diagnosis
  • haemopathogens
  • cattle
  • Africa.

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