The Prevalence and Molecular Characterization of Bovine Babesia Species and the First Report of B. bovis from Kashmir Himalayas

Bovine babesiosis, a global disease, has not been studied so far in Kashmir valley, which is having temperate type of climate as compared to rest of India having tropical to sub-tropical climate, so we felt the need to investigate it. To diagnose the babesiosis in clinically suspected cattle (n=450), peripheral blood film examination and PCR tests using generic and species-specific primers targeting / genera and , as well as , respectively were conducted. Four PCR products were sequenced and subjected to BLASTn analysis. Ticks were collected from the clinically suspected animals and identified as per the standard morphological keys. The prevalence of babesiosis among suspected cattle in central Kashmir by peripheral blood film examination and PCR technique was 11.11% and 33.62%, respectively. The gene of Isolate B1 of spp. showed 99.0 to 100% nucleotide sequence homology with gene of different isolates of registered in the GenBank, while as gene of Isolate Z showed 98.5 to 99.2% and 93.1 to 93.9% nucleotide sequence homology with gene of different isolates of spp. and , respectively registered in the GenBank. spp. and spp. were the two major tick genera identified in the present study. Bovine Babesiosis in Kashmir is attributed to , and some other spp. or strains which needs further investigation. To our knowledge, this is the first report of from northern India in cattle.