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Babesia

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Encyclopedia of Parasitology

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Babesia parasites, the causative agent of babesiosis, are transmitted by ticks and are able to invade the red blood cells of the vertebrate hosts. They cause a febrile disease of domestic and wild animals characterized by an extensive erythrocytic lysis leading to anemia, icterus, and hemoglobinuria and can be fatal. Babesia parasites are among the most widely distributed blood pathogens with a considerable economic, veterinary, and medical impact worldwide. In the last years, it became evident that certain Babesia species are of zoonotic importance.

Taxonomy

Taxonomic classification places the genus Babesia in the phylum Apicomplexa, Levine 1970, class Sporozoa Leuckart 1879; also called Aconoidasida, and the order Piroplasmida (Wenyon 1926; Homer et al. 2000) (Fig. 1).

  • Phylum: Apicomplexa

  • Class: Sporozoa

  • Order: Piroplasmida

  • Family: Babesiidae

  • Genus: Babesia

Babesiaspecies are characterized by intraerythrocytic forms; have apical complex organelles, a merogonic stage within the...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Veterinary Infection Biology and Immunology, Research Center Borstel, Programme Priority Infection Biology, Leibniz Centre for Medicine and Biosciences, Parkallee 22, 23845, Borstel, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany

    Britta Petersen & Jabbar S. Ahmed

Authors
  1. Britta Petersen
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  2. Jabbar S. Ahmed
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Correspondence to Jabbar S. Ahmed .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Zoomorphologie, Zellbiologie und Parasitologie, Heinrich-Heine-Universität, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Heinz Mehlhorn

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Petersen, B., Ahmed, J.S. (2016). Babesia . In: Mehlhorn, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Parasitology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-43978-4_337

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