Detection of babesia bigemina cases in dogs in rural areas/türkiye by molecular methods

Abstract

Babesiosis, a very important vector disease, has also been detected in humans and animals. This study was carried out on 120 whole blood samples taken from Cankiri Municipality Animal Care and Rehabilitation Center (Türkiye) between December 2021 and 2022 in Cankiri. In this study, venous blood samples taken by a veterinarian were used for diagnosis. The 18S rRNA gene region was examined with conventional PCR analysis and the positive results were subjected to sequence analysis. As a result of sequence analysis, these positive cases were determined to be Babesia bigemina. Additionally, as a result of statistical analysis, it was found that dogs detected positive for B. bigemina did not give significant results according to age, gender or symptoms. B. bigemina detected in this study were registered in the NCBI database with 7 (Acc no: OQ186727), 12 (Acc no: OQ186720), 19 (Acc no: OQ186721), 21 (Acc no: OQ186722), 23 (Acc no: OQ18723), 28 (Acc no: OQ186724), 30 (Acc no: OQ186725), and 70 (Acc no: OQ186726) numbers. The B. bigemina species detected in dogs in this study is actually seen in farm animals. This study is the first detection report of B. bigemina in dogs in Turkey. As a result, Babesia species seen in dogs need to be reconsidered and investigated with the development of molecular techniques.

Keywords

• babesia
• babesia bigemina
• babesiosis
• dog