Babesiosis of cattle

Abstract

Babesiosis (also known as tick fever or cattle fever) is caused by intraerythrocytic protozoan parasites of the genus Babesia that infect a wide range of domestic and wild animals, and occasionally humans. The disease is tick-transmitted and distributed worldwide. Economically, tick fever is the most important arthropod-borne disease of cattle, with vast areas of Australia, Africa, South and Central America and the United States continuously under threat. Tick fever was the first disease for which transmission by an arthropod to a mammal was implicated at the turn of the twentieth century, and is the first disease to be eradicated from a continent (North America). This review describes the biology of Babesia spp. in the host and the tick, the scale of the problem to the cattle industry, the various components of control programmes, epidemiology, pathogenesis, immunity, vaccination and future research. The emphasis is on Babesia bovis and Babesia bigemina, the two most important species infecting cattle.