Abstract:
Transmission of a Babesia species to susceptible cattle by Rhipicephalus evertsi evertsi ticks picked
off a sable which died of acute babesiosis is described. The parasite was initially isolated by feeding
R. e. evertsi ticks on a susceptible, splenectomised bovine which developed parasitaemia. Blood stabilate
from the parasitaemic bovine produced a fatal babesiosis in a spleen- intact bovine. Clinical
signs shown by the affected animals corresponded with those of acute babesiosis. Parasitological
examination, the immunofluorescence antibody test and the polymerase chain reaction test revealed
that the parasite transmitted by the ticks initially and the blood stabilates prepared from affected animals
was Babesia bigemina. This parasite was morphologically identical to that observed in Giemsa-stained
blood smears prepared from the dead sable.
