Abstract
Bovine babesiosis is a tick-borne disease of cattle caused by the protozoan parasites of the genus Babesia. Babesia bovis, Babesia bigemina and Babesia divergens are considered by International health authorities (OIE) as the principal species of Babesia that cause bovine babesiosis. Animals that recover from a babesial primo infection may remain as persistent carriers with no clinical signs of disease and can be the source of infection for ticks that are able to acquire Babesia parasites from infected cattle and to transmit Babesia parasites to susceptible cattle. Several procedures that have been developed for parasite detection and diagnosis of this infectious carrier state constitute the basis for this review: A brief description of the direct microscopic detection of Babesia-infected erytrocytes; PCR-based diagnostic assays, which are very sensitive particularly in detecting Babesia in carrier cattle; in-vitro culture methods, used to demonstrate presence of carrier infections of Babesia sp.; animal inoculation, particularly for B. divergens isolation are discussed. Alternatively, persistently infected animals can be tested for specific antibabesial antibodies by using indirect serological assays. Serological procedures are not necessarily consistent in identifying persistently infected animals and have the disadvantage of presenting with cross reactions between antibodies to Babesia sp.
Highlights
IntroductionBovine babesiosis is a parasitic disease caused by an intraerythrocytic protozoan of the genus
Bovine babesiosis is a parasitic disease caused by an intraerythrocytic protozoan of the genusBabesia
During the acute phase of the disease the parasites are microscopically detected in circulation, and parasitemias with less than 0.5% of B. bovis-infected erythrocytes (IE), 3% B. bigemina-IE, and 35–40%
Summary
Bovine babesiosis is a parasitic disease caused by an intraerythrocytic protozoan of the genus. The most important species that affect cattle are Babesia bovis, Babesia bigemina and Babesia divergens [1,2]. B. bovis and B. bigemina are currently present in Africa, Australia, Central and South. B. divergens is distributed in North West Europe, Spain, Great. Ireland and its main vector is Ixodes ricinus [1]. The vectors for B. bovis and B. bigemina are Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus, R. annulatus and R. geigyi; B. bigemina is transmitted by Rhipicephalus evertsi [3,4]. Throughout the clinical phase of the disease, general findings include fever above 41 ◦ C, anemia, depression, anorexia, dehydration, hemoglobinuria and death of some affected animals. Nervous signs are regularly observed as result of sequestration of B. bovis-infected erythrocytes in cerebral capillaries
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