Affiliation:
1. Institute of Parasitology, Medical and Vetsuisse Faculty of the University of Zürich, Winterthurerstr. 266a, CH-8057 Zürich, Switzerland
2. Institut de Zoologie, Université de Neuchâtel, Emile-Argand 11, CH-2007 Neuchâtel, Switzerland
Abstract
ABSTRACT
Concurrent infections with vector-borne pathogens affected a cattle herd in Switzerland, and one of the pathogens was identified as
Babesia bigemina
, which had never been observed in this country before. Therefore, a survey of the occurrence of ruminant
Babesia
spp. and their tick vectors in Switzerland was conducted. A total of 2,017 ticks were collected from sheep, goats, cattle, and wild ruminants (deer, roe deer, and chamois) in southern parts of Switzerland and identified morphologically. The vast majority of the ticks (99.2%) were
Ixodes ricinus
, but 14 ticks from sheep and goats were identified as
Dermacentor marginatus
and two ticks from wild ruminants were identified as
Hemaphysalis punctata
. PCR analyses of 700 ticks revealed the presence of
Babesia divergens
(
n
= 6),
Babesia
sp. genotype EU1 (
n
= 14), and
B. major
(
n
= 2), whose suggested occurrence was confirmed in this study by molecular analysis, and the presence of novel
Babesia
sp. genotype CH1 (
n
= 4), which is closely related to
B. odocoilei
and to
Babesia
sp. genotype RD61 reported from North America. The identification of
B. divergens
and
B. major
in ticks collected from wild ruminants cast doubt on the postulated strict host specificity of these bovine
Babesia
species. Furthermore, the zoonotic
Babesia
sp. genotype EU1 was detected in ticks collected from domestic animals but was obtained predominantly from ticks collected from wild ruminants. More than one tick containing DNA of different
Babesia
spp. were collected from two red deer. Hence, the role of these game animals as reservoir hosts of
Babesia
spp. seems to be important but requires further investigation.
Publisher
American Society for Microbiology
Subject
Ecology,Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology,Food Science,Biotechnology
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