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Babesia Species

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Encyclopedia of Parasitology

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Name

This genus of piroplasms (Protozoa, Alveolata, Apicomplexa = former Sporozoa) was named honoring the Romanian pathologist Victor Babès (1854–1926), who first described (1888) these parasites, which are very important agents of diseases in humans and especially in farmed animals.

Important Species

Table 1 lists a spectrum of species which are more or less well described. Some of them, however, have a doubtful, systematic position. For example, the former species B. equi has already been transferred by Mehlhorn and Schein (1998) to the genus Theileria due to the existence of a typical schizogony in the lymphocytes of horse before the further asexual reproduction inside the erythrocytes. Since B. microti (at least some strains) has a similar development in lymphocytes, it will probably also transferred to the genus Theileriain the future with respect to molecular biological findings and that its very small genome differs considerably from those of other babesians and especially...

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References

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Further Readings

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Zoomorphologie, Zellbiologie und Parasitologie Universitätsstraße 1, 40225, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Heinz Mehlhorn

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  1. Heinz Mehlhorn
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Correspondence to Heinz Mehlhorn .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Zoomorphology and Parasitology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Heinz Mehlhorn

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Mehlhorn, H. (2017). Babesia Species. In: Mehlhorn, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Parasitology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27769-6_3719-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27769-6_3719-2

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-27769-6

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Species
    Published:
    30 January 2017

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27769-6_3719-2

  2. Original

    Species
    Published:
    09 October 2015

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27769-6_3719-1

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