Babesia, Theileria, and Hepatozoon species in ticks infesting animal hosts in RomaniaShow others and affiliations
2017 (English)In: Parasitology Research, ISSN 0932-0113, E-ISSN 1432-1955, Vol. 116, no 8, p. 2291-2297Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Babesia spp., Theileria spp., and Hepatozoon spp. are tick-transmitted apicomplexan parasites that cause several important diseases in animals. To increase current knowledge about the diversity of tick-transmitted pathogens in Romania, we investigated the occurrence of Babesia spp., Theileria spp., and Hepatozoon spp. in a wide range of tick species infesting animal hosts. We collected 852 ticks from 10 different animal species from 20 counties in Romania. The assessment was based on detection of parasite DNA by PCR. Five different apicomplexan parasite species were detected; among them three different species of Babesia: B. canis, B. microti, and B. ovis. Hepatozoon canis was the most frequently detected parasite, found predominately in Ixodes ricinus ticks collected from domestic dogs. It was also detected in I. ricinus collected from goat, fox, and cat. Furthermore, H. canis was found in Haemaphysalis punctata and Haemaphysalis concinna ticks. In addition, Theileria buffeli was detected in Rhipicephalus bursa ticks collected from cattle.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Springer, 2017. Vol. 116, no 8, p. 2291-2297
Keywords [en]
Ticks, Babesia, Theileria, Hepatozoon, Romania
National Category
Microbiology
Research subject
Ecology, Zoonotic Ecology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-67500DOI: 10.1007/s00436-017-5537-4ISI: 000406423300026Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85021826833OAI: oai:DiVA.org:lnu-67500DiVA, id: diva2:1136944
2017-08-292017-08-292025-09-23Bibliographically approved