Iraqi Journal of Veterinary Sciences

Abstract

Sarcoptes scabiei var cameli is the most frequent zoonotic species of mites causing mange in camels worldwide. The prevalence of camel’s mange in Iraq is still little studied. Thus, this research was conducted to detect S. scabiei from camels distributed in four provinces of the Middle-Furat area which includes; Al-Muthaana, Al-Diwaniyah, Najaf, and Babil, beginning from January 2020 until December 2020. The Molecular technique depending on the conventional polymerase chain reaction (cPCR) was performed for direct detection of S. scabiei based on mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 (COX1) gene from skin scrape lesion samples. The results revealed that 125 out of 425 samples (29.41%) of examined camels were infested with S. scabiei. According to sex of the infested animals, the infestation rate was high in females compared with males, where it was 85 (30.91 %) and 40 (26.67%), respectively. In addition, the age 1.5 years old showed the highest number of infestation (83 out of 85) with a percentage 97.65%, while the percentages were 21 out of 60 (35%) and 4 out 68 (5.88%) in animals with 2 and 7 years old, respectively. The results also recorded that infested animals found in Najaf and Al-Diwaniyah had the highest number of infestation, with percentages 36% and 35%, respectively. The finding also demonstrated that the highest infestation percentage was in winter months (January and February) with percentages 92.31% and 80%, respectively. The sequencing and phylogenetic analysis showed that the local isolates of Iraqi camels were consistent with isolates recorded in China.