EVALUATION OF A SIMPLE THEILERIA ANNULATA CULTURE PROTOCOL FROM EXPERIMENTALLY INFECTED BOVINE WHOLE BLOOD

We have evaluated a new simple technique using whole blood from experimentally infected cattle for the isolation and cultivation of Theileria annulata. The study was carried out on 20 Holstein-Frisian bovines that had been experimentally infected with a virulent lethal dose of Theileria annulata. This technique has been compared to he classical peripheral blood monocyte isolation with Ficoll caned out on 22 experimentally infected Holstein-Friesian calves. The effectiveness of the reference technique was estimated to 86.4 %, whilst the effectiveness of the new technique was 100 %. Moreover, this new technique leads to time and money saving estimated to (sic) 3.06 per sample. It decreases the contamination risks by reducing the steps of sample manipulation.