Muhammad Nauman Rafique*1, Waleed Akram2, Muhammad Arslan Aslam3, Azhar Shabbir Ather3, Muhammad Rehman1, Ali Zahid4, Zeeshan Ahmed5, Naimat Ullah6, Mehwish Saeed7, Aila Tehreem8 and Saba Mehnaz1
1Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan 2Department of Pathobiology, Section of Parasitology, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore, Jhang Campus, Jhang, Pakistan 3Department of Clinical Medicine and Surgery, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan 4Department of Theriogenology, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan 5Salman Poultry Pvt Ltd 6Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan 7Institute of Microbiology, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan 8Pakistan Institute of Pharmacy
drnaumanbaig732@gmail.com
Babesia belongs to the phylum Apicomplexa and its order is Piroplasmida. Babesia mainly spread through Ixodid ticks where the sexual stages of its life cycle are completed by sporogony. It is a Protozoan parasite that can infect the red blood cells of vertebrate hosts including man and animals. Sporozoites of Babesia multiply in the saliva of ticks during the blood meal and infect RBCs, where they replicate asexually and develop into merozoites. There are a variety of ways for the detection of Babesia infection i.e. blood smear (detection under the microscope), serology (detection of antibodies against Babesia spp. in plasma or serum), and molecular detection (DNA isolation including PCR) and animal inoculation method. Modern molecular studies involving gene sequencing and phylogenetic analysis are required for diversity detection among Babesia species. However, phylogenetic analysis has been done for a variety of pathogens but needs much improvement. Newer immunological methods are more reliable and more precise than conventional approaches.