| Babesia bovis | |
|---|---|
| |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Clade: | Diaphoretickes |
| Clade: | SAR |
| Clade: | Alveolata |
| Phylum: | Apicomplexa |
| Class: | Aconoidasida |
| Order: | Piroplasmida |
| Family: | Babesiidae |
| Genus: | Babesia |
| Species: | B. bovis
|
| Binomial name | |
| Babesia bovis V. Babes 1888
| |
| Synonyms | |
| |
Babesia bovis is an Apicomplexan single-celled parasite of cattle which occasionally infects humans. The disease it and other members of the genus Babesia cause is a hemolytic anemia known as babesiosis and colloquially called Texas cattle fever, redwater or piroplasmosis. It is transmitted by bites from infected larval ticks of the order Ixodida.[1] It was eradicated from the United States by 1943, but is still present in Mexico and much of the world's tropics. The chief vector of Babesia species is the southern cattle fever tick Rhipicephalus microplus (formerly Boophilus microplus).[2]
In 2007, the sequence of its genome was announced. Measuring 8.2 million base pairs, its genome is remarkably similar to the genome of Theileria parva, the cause of East Coast fever (theileriosis) in cattle.[3]
- ^ Spickler, Anna Rovid; James A. Roth (2008). Emerging and exotic diseases of animals. Ames, Iowa: Institute for International Cooperation in Animal Biologies. p. 132. ISBN 978-0-9745525-5-2.
- ^ Mullen, Gary R.; Lance A. Durden (2009). Medical and Veterinary Entomology. Elsevier Science. p. 500. ISBN 978-0-12-372500-4.
- ^ Brayton KA, Lau AO, Herndon DR, et al. (2007). "Genome Sequence of Babesia bovis and Comparative Analysis of Apicomplexan Hemoprotozoa". PLOS Pathogens. 3 (10): 1401–13. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.0030148. PMC 2034396. PMID 17953480.