Babesia microti, a hemoprotozoan parasite of rodents, is also important as a zoonotic agent of human babesiosis. The Maltese cross form, which consists of four masses in an erythrocyte, is characteristic of the developmental stage of B. microti. Monoclonal antibody (MAb) 2-1E, which specifically recognizes the Maltese cross form of B. microti, has been described previously. In the present study...

Dicationic diamidines, such as diminazene and pentamidine, are well-studied chemotherapeutic agents with significant activity against parasitic diseases. The in vitro activities of novel diamidine compounds against the Babesia divergens strains 1903B and 4201 were investigated. The most potent compound, a diphenyl furan, had a 50% inhibitory concentration (IC(50)) of 1.5 ng/ml. In a murine mode...

CONTEXT The risk of acquiring babesiosis by blood transfusion is largely unknown since in areas where it is endemic it is often an asymptomatic infection. OBJECTIVE To investigate and treat a cluster of blood transfusion-associated babesiosis cases. DESIGN Case series and epidemiologic investigation. SETTING Urban inner-city hospital. PATIENTS Six persons who received Babesia microti-in...

Mice injected intravenously with a commercially available extract of Coxiella burnetii prepared for use as the antigen in the complement fixation diagnostic test for Q fever were subsequently resistant to infection with Babesia microti, Babesia rodhaini, and Plasmodium vinckei petteri. The parasites appeared to die inside circulating erythrocytes. Protection was unaffected by exposing the pretr...

The etiological agents that cause human babesiosis (Babesia microti) and Lyme disease (Borrelia burgdorferi) share a common tick vector (Ixodes scapularis Say) and rodent reservoir (Peromyscus leucopus), but because the geographical distribution of babesiosis is more restricted than Lyme disease, it was not considered a nationally notifiable disease until 2011. Although recent studies have show...

Human babesiosis is an increasing health concern in the northeastern United States, where the causal agent, Babesia microti, is spread through the bite of infected Ixodes scapularis ticks. We sampled 10 mammal and 4 bird species within a vertebrate host community in southeastern New York to quantify reservoir competence (mean percentage of ticks infected by an individual host) using real-time P...

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. ...

6. Nakajima R, Tsuji M, Oda K, ZamotoNiikura A, Wei Q, Kawabuchi-Kurata T, et al. Babesia microti–group parasites compared phylogenetically by complete sequencing of the CCTeta gene in 36 isolates. J Vet Med Sci. 2009;71:55–68. http://dx.doi.org/10.1292/jvms.71.55 7. Hirata H, Kawai S, Maeda M, Jinnai M, Fujisawa K, Katakai Y, et al. Identification and phylogenetic analysis of Japanese macaque ...