Department of Animal Health, NEIKER, Instituto Vasco de Investigación y Desarrollo Agrario, Berreaga 1, 48160 Derio, Bizkaia, Spain.
Parasitology. 2011 Apr;138(5):578-82. doi: 10.1017/S0031182011000060. Epub 2011 Feb 2.
Descriptions of Babesia occultans have previously been restricted to sub-Saharan Africa. Here, we report the finding, for the first time, of this low or non-pathogenic bovine Babesia species in Tunisia, northern Africa. B. occultans DNA was detected by molecular methods in Hyalomma marginatum unfed ticks collected in 3 bioclimatic regions of Tunisia. The near-full-length 18S rRNA gene was sequenced and compared with related sequences retrieved from GenBank. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that other sequences deposited as Babesia sp. could also correspond to B. occultans, suggesting that this species may have a wide distribution in Mediterranean and Asiatic regions, and not only in sub-Saharan Africa as previously described. A B. occultans-specific Reverse Line Blot (RLB) oligonucleotide probe was designed for future epidemiological studies that would help to clarify this possibility.
先前对无形体的描述仅限于撒哈拉以南非洲地区。在这里，我们首次报告了这种低致病性或非致病性的牛无形体在北非突尼斯的存在。通过分子方法在突尼斯的 3 个生物气候区采集的未进食的边缘革蜱中检测到无形体 DNA。对近全长 18S rRNA 基因进行了测序，并与从 GenBank 中检索到的相关序列进行了比较。系统发育分析表明，作为 Babesia sp. 存入的其他序列也可能对应于无形体，这表明该物种可能在地中海和亚洲地区广泛分布，而不仅仅是以前描述的撒哈拉以南非洲地区。为了进一步的流行病学研究，我们设计了一种针对无形体的特异性反向线杂交（RLB）寡核苷酸探针，这将有助于澄清这种可能性。
