A new strain of Babesia microti (KR-1) was isolated from a Connecticut resident with babesiosis by hamster inoculation and adapted to C3H/HeJ and BALB/c mice. To examine the relative importance of humoral and cellular immunity for the control of B. microti infection, we compared the course of disease in wild-type BALB/c mice with that in BALB/c SCID mice, JHD-null (B-cell-deficient) mice, and T...

Natural selection should favour parents that are able to adjust their offspring's life-history strategy and resource allocation in response to changing environmental and social conditions. Pathogens impose particularly strong and variable selective pressure on host life histories, and parental genes will benefit if offspring are appropriately primed to meet the immunological challenges ahead. H...

A vaccination protocol against murine Babesia microti infection, using glucan, a beta-1,3-glucopyranose derivative of yeast cell walls, and glutaraldehyde-fixed infected erythrocytes was evaluated. BALB/c mice were immunized intravenously four times at 2-day intervals with 2 X 10(8) fixed infected erythrocytes with and without glucan (0.45 mg). The mice were challenged 2 weeks after the last im...

To the Editor: Babesiosis, which is caused by intraerythrocytic sporozoites of the genus Babesia, is a tick-borne emerging zoonosis in humans. Although >100 Babesia species infect animals, only a few species, mainly B. microti and B. divergens, infect humans. Human infections with B. microti have been reported from the United States and other countries, and most human infections with B. diverge...

Ixodes ricinus, the most commonly observed tick species in Poland, is a known vector of such pathogenic microorganisms as TBE viruses, Borrelia burgdoferi sensu lato, Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Rickettsia helvetica, Babesia divergens and B. microti in our country. Our study aimed to find out whether this tick can also transmit other babesiae of medical and veterinary importance. DNA extracts of...

AIM To establish serologically a contact with causative agents of human monocytic and granulocytic ehrlichiosis, human babesiosis, recently detected rickettsioses, and Lyme disease in individuals with a history of tick bite from three counties in eastern Croatia. METHODS Seroepidemiologic testing was performed in 102 subjects with a history of tick bite, who either requested examination for a...