Tick-borne diseases (TBDs) are serious constraints to livestock production in Tanzania and other tropical and subtropical countries and impact the livelihoods of resource-poor farming communities in the region. In Tanzania, detailed studies on tick-borne pathogens (TBPs) in cattle using sensitive molecular detection methods are scarce. The objective of this study was to investigate the occurrence and species composition of bovine TBPs in cattle kept in Zanzibar Island. A total of 236 blood samples were randomly collected in cattle population in June and July 2019. We used polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and gene sequencing to detect and identify pathogens. PCR screening of all 236 samples revealed that 64.5% of animals were infected by TBPs, including Theileria parva (34.3%), T. mutans (38.1%), T. taurotragi (30.9%), Anaplasma marginale (10.2%), Babesia bigemina (5.1%), T. velifera (3.4%) and B. bovis (2.1%). Overall a total of 86 animals (36.4%) were co-infected with up to five pathogens including T. parva, T. mutans, T. taurotragi, A. marginale and B. bigemina. The pathogens mostly involved in the co-infection were T. parva, T. taurotragi and T. mutans. Sequence analysis indicated that T. parva p104 and B. bigemina RAP1a genes are diverse among the sampled animals in Zanzibar Island, with 99.64%–100% and 99.51%–100% nucleotide sequence identity value respectively. In contrast, the A. marginale MSP-5, T. mutans 18S rRNA V4 region and B. bovis SBP-2 genes are conserved, with 100%, 99.05%-100% and 99.66%-100% nucleotide sequence identity values respectively. The phylogenetic analyses revealed that T. parva p104 and B. bigemina RAP1a gene sequences showed significant differences of genotypes, as they appear in different clades. Meanwhile, A. marginale MSP-5, T. mutans 18S rRNA V4 region and B. bovis SBP-2 gene sequences appear in the same clade with other sequences extracted from the NCBI GenBank. The epidemiological findings revealed in this study will provide important information on tick-borne diseases in Tanzania and will be used as scientific basis for planning future control strategies.

Tanzania传播疾病（TBDs）严重限制了坦桑尼亚及其他热带和亚热带国家的畜牧生产，并影响了该地区资源贫乏的农业社区的生计。在坦桑尼亚，缺乏使用灵敏的分子检测方法对牛tick传病原体（TBPs）进行详细研究的方法。这项研究的目的是调查在桑给巴尔岛饲养的牛中牛TBP的发生和种类组成。2019年6月和7月，在牛群中随机采集了236份血液样本。我们使用聚合酶链反应（PCR）和基因测序来检测和鉴定病原体。PCR筛选所有236个样本发现动物是64.5％是由时限计划，包括感染泰勒麦穗鱼（34.3％），T.链球菌（38.1％），taurotragi（30.9％），Anaplasma marginale（10.2％），Babesia bigemina（5.1％），T。velifera（3.4％）和B. bovis（2.1％）。总体上，总共有86只动物（占36.4％）与5种病原体同时感染，包括病原体，变形链球菌，ta.traurotragi，边缘拟南芥和双歧杆菌。共同感染中最主要涉及的病原体是细小锥虫，taurotragi锥虫和变形链球菌。序列分析表明，T.麦穗鱼P104和B. bigemina桑给巴尔岛采样动物中的RAP1a基因多种多样，分别具有99.64％–100％和99.51％–100％核苷酸序列同一性值。相反，A.marginale MSP-5，T。mutans 18S rRNA V4区和B. bovis SBP-2基因是保守的，分别具有100％，99.5％-100％和99.66％-100％的核苷酸序列同一性值。系统发育分析表明，T.麦穗鱼P104和B. bigemina RAP1a基因序列显示基因型显著差异，因为它们出现在不同的进化枝。同时，A.marginale MSP-5，T。mutans 18S rRNA V4区和B. bovisSBP-2基因序列与从NCBI GenBank提取的其他序列出现在同一进化枝中。这项研究中揭示的流行病学发现将提供有关坦桑尼亚tick传播疾病的重要信息，并将用作规划未来控制策略的科学依据。