Babesiosis of domestic animals is a vector transmissible and clinically
significant disease, caused by protozoa of genus Babesia and Theileria.
Possible causative agents for this disease in dogs in Europe are: Babesia
canis, B. gibsoni, B. vogeli and B. microti-like. Diagnostics of babesiosis
of dogs was for a long time based on the visual inspection of stained blood
smear under a microscope, while today there have been increasingly used
molecular methods of detection in precise, species diagnostics. The
objective of this work was molecular detection of the cause of babesiosis of
dogs in the ticks sampled from asymptomatic dogs in the region of some
Belgrade municipalities, all for better understanding of epizootiological
situation. From three sites in Belgrade, there were collected 49 ticks,
sampled from the dogs with no symptoms. There was carried out the
determination of the ticks, and after that, DNA was isolated for molecular
examination. First, there was performed Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR),
for determining the species of the genus Babesia, and after that there was
also carried out the determining of polymorphism in the length of
restriction fragments (RFLP) for the purpose of the causative agent species
determination. Out of the total number of the examined ticks, 18,34% were
positive on Babesia spp. By RFLP method, in two cases (4,08%) B. Gibsoni
was identified, while in 7 cas?es (14,92%) there were no restriction sites
for the used enzymes, what suggests that most likely it was B. canis. The
ticks positive on the cause of babesiosis were: Dermacentor reticulatus (4
cases), Rhipicephalus sanguineus (4 cases) i Ixodes ricinus (1 case). This
work confirms the presence of Babesia spp. in the ticks sampled from
asmptomatic dogs on the teritory of Belgrade as well as the significance of
PCR-RFLP method in diagnostics and identification of the causative agent of
babesiosis in dogs. For the first time in Serbia, there was determined the
presence of B. gibsoni in ticks (Species Rhipicephalus sanguineus)
Molecular detection of tick-borne pathogens in canine population and Rhipicephalus sanguineus (sensu lato) ticks from southern Metro Manila and Laguna, Philippines
