Equine piroplasmosis (EP) is an infectious, tick-borne disease caused by the hemoprotozoan parasites, Theileria equi, Babesia caballi, and a recently reported new species, T. haneyi. Infections by these apicomplexan parasites limit performance and cause economic losses for the horse industry. Equine piroplasmosis is widespread in the northern regions of Nigeria, where an increasing portion of the animal population is composed of horses. This disease has remained epidemiologically challenging, especially as the movement of horses increases across Nigeria. In this study, blood samples from 300 horses were collected in three states of northwestern Nigeria. The presence of piroplasms was screened by nested PCR targeting 18S rDNA and positive samples were analyzed using species-specific-nested PCR-targeting genes including ema1 (T. equi), rap1 (B. caballi), and a gene coding a protein of unknown function (T. haneyi). Species-specific-nPCR results demonstrated that the prevalence of T. equi was 13.0% (39/300), B. caballi was 3.3% (10/300) and T. haneyi was 2.7% (8/300). Mixed infections with T. equi and B. caballi was 2.7% (8/300) while T. equi, B. caballi, and T. haneyi multiple infection prevalence was 0.6% (2/300). We used 18S rDNA sequences to determine close relationships between T. equi by phylogenetic analysis and demonstrated that among 57 sequences of Theileria parasites, 28 samples belonged to clade A (49%), 13 samples were found to be clade C (22%), and 16 were clade D (28%). These results demonstrate the genetic diversity of T. equi circulating in horses from Nigeria.

马原虫病（EP）是由血原虫寄生虫，Theileria equi，Babesia caballi和最近报道的新物种T. haneyi引起的传染性tick传播疾病。。这些apicomplexan寄生虫的感染会限制性能，并给马业造成经济损失。马脊灰质体病广泛分布在尼日利亚北部地区，那里越来越多的动物种群由马组成。这种疾病在流行病学上仍然具有挑战性，特别是随着马在整个尼日利亚的活动增加。在这项研究中，在尼日利亚西北部的三个州收集了300匹马的血样。通过靶向18S rDNA的巢式PCR筛选质体的存在，并使用物种特异性嵌套PCR靶向基因（包括ema1（T. equi），rap1（B. caballi）和编码未知蛋白的基因）分析阳性样品功能（T. haneyi）。物种特异性nPCR结果表明，马科动物T. equi的患病率为13.0％（39/300），卡巴利氏杆菌为3.3％（10/300），而哈密​​氏菌为2.7％（8/300）。与混合感染T.球菌和B.巴贝斯为2.7％（300分之8），而T.球菌，B.巴贝斯，和T. haneyi多重感染发生率是0.6％（300分之2）。我们用18S rDNA序列来确定之间的密切关系T.球菌通过进化分析和证明中的57个序列泰勒寄生虫中，有28个样本属于进化枝A（49％），有13个样本属于进化枝C（22％），有16个样本属于进化枝D（28％）。这些结果证明了来自尼日利亚的马中马蹄铁的遗传多样性。