Technical note Laboratory diagnosis of novel species of Theileria hirci, Eimeria caprovina and Eimeria pallida in goats in Iraq M.A.Y. Al-Amery a , S.A. Hasso b,* a Department of Veterinary Internal and Preventive Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Basrah, Basrah, Iraq b Department of Veterinary Internal and Preventive Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Baghdad, PO Box 28061, Dawoodi-Al-Ameria, Baghdad, Iraq Accepted 25 August 2001 Abstract Laboratory examination of blood smears and fecal samples collected from 615 goats around Baghdad city revealed positive cases of Theileria hirci 208), Eimeria caprovina 94) and Eimeria pallida 48). These protozoa are novel species and have not been previously reported in Iraq. # 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Goats; Theileria hirci; Eimeria caprovina; Eimeria pallida; Iraq 1. Introduction Theileriosis is one of the important diseases of farm animals in Iraq. In sheep, Little Wood 1915) reported the causative agent to be Theileria hirci. In cows, Machattie 1935) mentioned that the causative agent was T. anulata. In goats, theileriosis has only been suspected clinically by veterinarians without labora- tory con®rmation. Mirza 1970) identi®ed the following seven species of Eimeria in goats in Iraq: E. crandalis E. hirci), E. christenseni, E. parva E. alijeri), E. fauri E. apsheronica), E. ninakoholyakimovae, E. arlongi and E. granulosa E. jolchijevi). The present investigation was carried out to identify some non-reported protozoa of goats in Iraq. 2. Materials and methods Blood smears and fecal samples were collected randomly from 615 goats around Baghdad city north, south, east, west) and from IPA station for goat breeding. Blood smears were stained with Giemsa and exam- ined under the oil-immersion lens Adam et al., 1971). The parasitemia was calculated according to Schalm et al. 1975). Fecal sample of about 3±5 g were well mixed and ®ltered through four fold gauze, then treated with Sheather's sugar solution according to Dunn 1969). 3. Results Microscopic examination of the 615 stained blood smear's for T. hirci revealed 208 33.82%) positive cases, while examination of the 615 fecal samples Small Ruminant Research 44 2002) 163±166 * Corresponding author. Tel.: 964-1-7194310. 0921-4488/02/$ ± see front matter # 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII:S0921-448802)00023-8