Tick fever or cattle fever (babesiosis) is economically the most important arthropod-borne disease of cattle worldwide with vast areas of Australia, Africa, South and Central America and the United States continuously under threat. Tick fever was the first disease for which transmission by an arthropod to a mammal was implicated at the turn of the twentieth century and is the first disease to be eradicated from a continent (North America). This review describes the biology of Babesia spp. in the host and the tick, the scale of the problem to the cattle industry, the various components of control programmes, epidemiology, pathogenesis, immunity, vaccination and future research. The emphasis is on Babesia bovis and Babesia bigemina.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0031182004005190

Babesiosis of cattle.

Babesia--a historical overview.

http://acacia.atspace.eu/papers/BabesiaWorld.pdf

Babesia: a world emerging.

http://www.nslc.wustl.edu/courses/Bio348/thach/2011/Babesiosis%20review.pdf

Babesiosis: recent insights into an ancient disease.

Molecular studies on Babesia, Theileria and Hepatozoon in southern Europe: Part I. Epizootiological aspects

Molecular studies on Babesia, Theileria and Hepatozoon in southern Europe. Part II. Phylogenetic analysis and evolutionary history

https://www.vetmed.auburn.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Criado-Fornelio_Vet_Microb_93_307_2003.pdf

Presence of Mycoplasma haemofelis, Mycoplasma haemominutum and piroplasmids in cats from southern Europe: a molecular study.

Molecular techniques were used to examine the phylogenetic relationships among Hepatozoon species isolated from 13 foxes and 15 opossums from Brazil, and from 15 dogs, 20 foxes, 45 rodents, and 330 domestic cats from Spain. Hemogregarine infection was confirmed by amplification of the 18S rRNA gene and later sequencing. No hemogregarine infections were found in opossums. The prevalence of Hepatozoon in canids ranged from 26.6% (symptomatic domestic dogs) to 90% (Spanish foxes). Four different H. canis genotypes were detected, as well as an H. americanum-related protozoan (97% identical to the USA strain). Two Spanish cats were parasitized by a Hepatozoon species (0.6% prevalence) that showed 96% sequence identity to H. canis. DNA amplification assays performed on Spanish rodents showed 2 bank voles (Clethrionomys glareolus) to be infected by a Hepatozoon species (4.44% prevalence) with 95% sequence identity to Hepatozoon sp. from cats. Phylogenetic analysis showed Hepatozoon to be a monophyletic genus, in which species from carnivorous mammals (Hepatozoon sp. from cats, H. americanum and H. canis) appear as a sister lineage of that of lower vertebrates and rodents. This association suggests that H. americanum evolved in ticks and carnivores (either canids, or felids, or both) rather than in other ectoparasites and other types of mammal.

https://bioone.org/journals/Journal-of-Parasitology/volume-92/issue-1/GE-464R.1/NEW-MOLECULAR-DATA-ON-MAMMALIAN-HEPATOZOON-SPECIES-APICOMPLEXA--ADELEORINA/10.1645/GE-464R.1.pdf

J.C. Barba-Carretero

Papers

Molecular studies on Babesia, Theileria and Hepatozoon in southern Europe: Part I. Epizootiological aspects

Molecular studies on Babesia, Theileria and Hepatozoon in southern Europe. Part II. Phylogenetic analysis and evolutionary history

Presence of Mycoplasma haemofelis, Mycoplasma haemominutum and piroplasmids in cats from southern Europe: a molecular study.

New molecular data on mammalian hepatozoon species (apicomplexa: adeleorina) from brazil and spain

The "expanding universe" of piroplasms.