The apicomplexan intraerythrocytic parasite Babesia microti is an emerging human pathogen and the primary cause of human babesiosis, a malaria-like illness endemic in the United States. The pathogen is transmitted to humans by the tick vector, Ixodes scapularis, and by transfusion of blood from asymptomatic B. microti-infected donors. Whereas the nuclear and mitochondrial genomes of this parasi...

Mycobacterium microti, the vole bacillus, which was used as a live vaccine against tuberculosis until the 1970s, confers the same protection in humans as does Mycobacterium bovis bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG). However, because the efficacy of the BCG vaccine varies considerably, we have tried to develop a better vaccine by reintroducing into M. microti the complete region of difference 1 (RD1),...

Abstract Infections with Mycobacterium microti, a member of the M. tuberculosis complex, have been increasingly reported in humans and domestic free-ranging wild animals. At postmortem examination, infected animals may display histopathologic lesions indistinguishable from those caused by bovis or caprae, potentially leading to misidentification bovine tuberculosis. We report 3 cases microti in...

B. microti is known as the main etiological agent of human babesiosis and there are some case studies for that disease, highlighting the fact that this is an important “emerging tick-borne disease”. However a lot of information about this protist is unclear. The reactions in the liver are noticeable already after the fi rst three weeks of infection. This therefore provides the basis for discuss...

Cutaneous tuberculosis (cTB) represents 1-2% of extrapulmonary [1] and is caused by the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (M. tuberculosis, M. bovis, africanum, microti, canetti, caprae, pinnipedii).

Most reported U.S. zoonotic cases of babesiosis have occurred in the Northeast and been caused by Babesia microti. In Washington State, three cases of babesiosis have been reported previously, which were caused by WA1 (for "Washington 1")-type parasites. We investigated a case of babesiosis in Washington in an 82-year-old man whose spleen had been removed and whose parasitemia level was 41.4%. ...

Tuberculosis can be caused by a number of different, but closely related, bacteria. Members of the tuberculosis complex include Mycobacterium (M.) tuberculosis, M. bovis and M. microti. M. tuberculosis causes over 90% of tuberculosis in man, but rarely infects other mammals, except for dogs. M. bovis is the main cause of tuberculosis in cattle. It can also infect various other mammals, includin...

The emergence of Lyme borreliosis as the most prevalent arthropod disease of humans in the temperate northern hemisphere has resulted in renewed interest in human babesiosis, transmitted by the same tick vectors. The advent of new molecular tools has made possible a reappraisal of the main parasites involved (Babesia divergens in Europe and Babesia microti in the USA). B. divergens is probably ...

The U.S. lineage, one of the major clades in the Babesia microti group, is known as a causal agent of human babesiosis mostly in the northeastern and upper midwestern United States. This lineage, however, also is distributed throughout the temperate zone of Eurasia with several reported human cases, although convincing evidence of the identity of the specific vector(s) in this area is lacking. ...

Babesia microti is a malaria-like parasite, which infects ∼2000 people annually, such that babesiosis is now a notifiable disease in the United States. Immunocompetent individuals often remain asymptomatic and are tested only after they feel ill. Susceptible C3H/HeJ mice show several human-like disease manifestations and are ideal to study pathogenesis of Babesia species. In this study, we exam...