Abstract
‘Babesiosis’ is the general name applied to infection with organisms belonging to the genus Babesia. These are small intraerythrocytic protozoa in the order Piroplasmida and the phylum Apicomplexa, which divide by binary fission within the red blood cells of mammals and, after a sexual phase, undergo a number of asexual divisions in the invertebrate vector, which is an ixodid tick. Within the mammalian host, the only forms known to be present are those in the blood; thus, the Babesiidae differ from the Theileriidae, to which they are closely related, and the Plasmodiidae, to which they are less closely related, in which one or more phases of division in various tissues precedes the erythrocytic stage. From the point of view of experimental infections, this is an important distinction, because babesiosis can be transmitted by blood stages alone and the whole pattern of natural infection mimicked in the experimental host.
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Cox, F.E.G. (1982). Babesiosis in Rodents and Humans. In: Owen, D.G. (eds) Animal Models in Parasitology. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-06136-5_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-06136-5_5
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