Prevalence of tick born babesia infection in domestic cattle of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Abstract

Looking into the importance of tick born diseases in the livestock sector, the present study was conducted to find out the prevalence of babesiosis among domestic cattle of Southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Blood samples (1500) were collected from clinically suspected cattle in span of one year. All blood samples were examined through microscope. Overall incidence of babesiosis was 54.80%. B. boves showed high prevalence (35.46%) than B. bigemina (19.33%). Females were more prone as compared to male cattle for both B. boves and B. bigemina. Cattle having age less than two years showed high positivity for both B. boves (49.23%) and B. bigemina (26.15%). Similarly rate of positivity for both B. boves (47.12%) and B. bigemina (25.13%) was reported high during summer season.