During 2009-2012, wild animals were sampled in two areas within the Amazon biome of Brazil, in the states of Mato Grosso and Pará. Animal tissues and blood were molecularly tested for the presence of Piroplasmida (genera Babesia, Theileria, Cytauxzoon) or Hepatozoon DNA. Overall, 181 wild animals comprising 36 different species (2 reptiles, 5 birds, and 29 mammals) were sampled. The following P...

Blood parasites are potential threats to the health of penguins and to their conservation and management. Little penguins Eudyptula minor are native to Australia and New Zealand, and are susceptible to piroplasmids (Babesia), hemosporidians (Haemoproteus, Leucocytozoon, Plasmodium) and kinetoplastids (Trypanosoma). We studied a total of 263 wild little penguins at 20 sites along the Australian ...

Babesia spp. (Apicomplexa, Piroplasmida) are obligate parasites of many species of mammals, causing a malaria-like infection- babesiosis. Three routes of Babesia infection have been recognized to date. The main route is by a tick bite, the second is via blood transfusion. The third, vertical route of infection is poorly recognized and understood. Our study focused on vertical transmission of B....

BACKGROUND The importance of tick-borne diseases is increasing all over the world, including Turkey. The tick-borne disease outbreaks reported in recent years and the abundance of tick species and the existence of suitable habitats increase the importance of studies related to the epidemiology of ticks and tick-borne pathogens in Turkey. The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of ...

Wild animals are natural reservoir hosts for a variety of pathogens that can be transmitted to other wildlife, livestock, domestic animals, and humans. deer (family Cervidae) in Europe, Asia, North South America have been reported infected with gastrointestinal vector-borne parasites. In Australia, wild populations expanded considerably recent years, yet there is little information regarding wh...

Piroplasmosis is a serious debilitating and sometimes fatal disease. Phylogenetic relationships within piroplasmida are complex and remain unclear. We compared the intron-exon structure and DNA sequences of the RPS8 gene from Babesia and Theileria spp. isolates in China. Similar to 18S rDNA, the 40S ribosomal protein S8 gene, RPS8, including both coding and non-coding regions is a useful and no...

The development of Babesia caballi in the salivary glands of Hyalomma truncatum was studied at the electron microscopic level. Kinetes were first observed in the salivary glands of ticks on Day 2 of tick feeding and on each subsequent day of feeding until engorgement on Day 8. Sporogony appeared to involve the formation of cytomeres. After continued nuclear division, sporozoites formed when ind...

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...

Hemoparasites can cause serious morbidity in humans and animals and often involve wildlife reservoirs. Understanding patterns of hemoparasite infections in natural populations can therefore inform about emerging disease risks, especially in the light of climate change and human disruption of natural ecosystems. We investigated the effects of host age, sex, host group size and season on infectio...