Experimental infectivity of Theileria luwenshuni and Theileria uilenbergi in Chinese Kunming mice

Theileria luwenshuni and Theileria uilenbergi are important tick-borne pathogens and cause substantial losses to the sheep industry in China. The improvement in detection techniques has allowed the identification of multi-homing parasitism in Theileria parasites. Herein we evaluated the experimental infectivity of T. luwenshuni and T. uilenbergi in Chinese Kunming mice by screening blood samples of experimentally inoculated mice by microscopic examination(ME) and PCR. T. luwenshuni infected Chinese Kunming mice and 20 mice inoculated with this parasite were positive by ME and PCR. In addition, T. uilenbergi infected mice and 20 mice inoculated with this species were positive by ME and PCR. However, the number of red blood cells and the levels of hemoglobin of 40 infected mice had no obvious changes in the course of infection. Our results demonstrated the multi-homing parasitism of T. luwenshuni and T. uilenbergi, which were believed to be parasites of sheep and goats. This study was the first to demonstrate the infection of T. luwenshuni and T. uilenbergi in Kunming mice.