Veterinary Parasitology 211 (2015) 175–181 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Veterinary Parasitology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/vetpar Trypanosome infection in dromedary camels in Eastern Ethiopia: Prevalence, relative performance of diagnostic tools and host related risk factors Regassa Fikru a,b,c,∗ , Yimer Andualem d , Terefe Getachew a , Joris Menten e , Epco Hasker f , Bekana Merga a , Bruno Maria Goddeeris c , Philippe Büscher b a College of Veterinary Medicine and Agriculture, Addis Ababa University, PO Box 34, Debre Zeit, Ethiopia b Institute of Tropical Medicine, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Nationalestraat 155, B-2000 Antwerp, Belgium c KU Leuven, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Department Biosystems, Kasteelpark Arenberg 30, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium d School of Veterinary Medicine, Wollo University, PO Box 1145, Dessie, Ethiopia e Institute of Tropical Medicine, Department of Clinical Sciences, Nationalestraat 155, B-2000 Antwerp, Belgium f Institute of Tropical Medicine, Department of Public Health, Nationalestraat 155, B-2000 Antwerp, Belgium article info Article history: Received 29 March 2014 Received in revised form 27 March 2015 Accepted 2 April 2015 Keywords: Dromedary camel Ethiopia Prevalence Risk factor Trypanosomosis Trypanosoma evansi Trypanosoma vivax abstract A cross-sectional study was conducted in Chifra and Dewe districts of Afar region, Eastern Ethiopia, to determine the prevalence, agreement between diagnostic tests and host related risk factors of try- panosome infection in camel. An overall prevalence of 2%, 24.1%, 21.3%, 9.5% and 7.8% was recorded with respectively Giemsa stained thin blood smear, CATT/T. evansi, RoTat1.2 PCR, 18S PCR and ITS-1PCR in a cohort of 399 animals. Only one T. vivax infection was confirmed by TvPRAC PCR indicating T. evansi as the predominant species affecting camels in the study area. No single animal was positive when tested with T. evansi type B specific EVAB PCR. There was slight agreement between the CATT/T. evansi and the molecular tests. Among the PCR methods, RoTat 1.2 PCR yielded a significantly higher positivity rate compared to 18S PCR and ITS-1 PCR. There was no significant difference in the positivity rate observed in each gender of camels (p > 0.05). The positivity rate was significantly higher in camels with poor body condition and in older animals when tested using the CATT/T.evansi or RoTat 1.2 PCR (p > 0.05). Camels that tested positive with all tests had significantly lower PCV’s (p< 0.05). This study provides further evidence that T. evansi is endemic in the Afar region of Ethiopia. The latent class analysis indicated an estimate overall prevalence of 19% (95% CI: 13–28). Moreover, the model indicated low sensitivity of CATT/T. evansi (43%) and the PCR tests (39–53%) but higher specificity of the PCR tests (86–99%) and low specificity of CATT/T. evansi (80%). This study suggests that improved sensitivity and reliability of the tests would help diagnosis of trypanosomosis. Further studies are required to determine the prevalence of clinical disease and losses due to trypanosomosis. © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Trypanosomosis is one of the major health problems with high morbidity and mortality in camels in Ethiopia (Demeke, 1998; Tekle and Abebe, 2001). The disease is caused by infection with hemoflagellated parasites belonging to the genus Trypanosoma. Trypanosoma evansi belongs to Trypanozoon subgenus and is the most commonly reported cause of camel trypanosomosis called ∗ Corresponding author at: Addis Ababa University, College of Veterinary Medicine and Agriculture, Debre Zeit, PO Box 34, Debre Zeit, Ethiopia. Tel.: +251 911907056. E-mail address: fikruregassa@yahoo.com (R. Fikru). surra (Röttcher et al., 1987). T. evansi is mechanically transmitted by blood sucking flies, such as Tabanidae and Stomoxys sp (Hoare, 1972). A number of researchers have investigated the epidemiol- ogy of camel trypanosome infection in different parts of Ethiopia. These studies were mainly based on parasitological and serolog- ical tests (Richard, 1979; Elias, 2003; Hailemariam et al., 2008; Hagos et al., 2009; Kassa et al., 2011; Tadesse et al., 2012). Para- sitological examination suffers from limited sensitivity even when using the haematocrit centrifugation technique. Serological tests are unable to distinguish past and current infections as the antibod- ies persist in the circulation (Büscher, 2014). The serological tests also are not fully specific due to the possibility of cross reactions with antibodies produced against other infections. For example http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.vetpar.2015.04.008 0304-4017/© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.