Babesia gibsoni
Mingming Liu ,1,2
Ikuo Igarashi ,2
and Xuenan Xuan 2,
*
1
School of Basic Medicine, Hubei University of Arts and Science, Xiangyang, China
2
National Research Center for Protozoan Diseases, Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Obihiro, Japan
Blood
transfusion
Vertical
transmission
Dog
fighting
Trophozoite
Gametocyte
Merozoite
Merozoites
egress
Gametes
Red blood
cell infected
Midgut
Kinete
Zygote
Adult
Salivary gland
Babesia gibsoni life cycle
Dog hostTick host
Ovary
Eggs
Tick bite
Tick bite
TrendsTrendsininParasitologyParasitology
Babesia gibsoni is an intraerythrocytic apicomplexan parasite that causes babesiosis in dogs. Since its first report in
India in 1910, B. gibsoni has spread globally. It is transmitted mainly by tick bite but many reports have demonstrated
transmission by dog fighting, and blood transfusion, and a few reports have mentioned transplacental
transmission to the developing fetus. The parasite life cycle consists of a sexual developmental phase in the midgut
lumen of tick vectors (gamogony) and two asexual developmental phases occurring in the tick salivary glands
(sporogony) and host red blood cells (merogony). To date, no effective commercial vaccine is available. Rapid
and accurate diagnosis and prompt treatment of infected animals are required to control this disease. Due to
emerging drug resistance, the current commonly used combination of antibiotics and antimalarial drugs have limited
efficacy against B. gibsoni infections. Effective anti-Babesia drugs are urgently needed, especially in the acute
clinical cases.
KEY FACTS:
There are three genomes in B. gibsoni: a
nuclear genome, a linear mitochondrial
genome (5.9 kb), and a circular
apicoplast genome (28.4 kb).
Besides dogs, other canids such as
coyotes, foxes, and jackals are also
potential hosts.
Besides the primary tick vector
Haemaphysalis longicornis,
Haemaphysalis bispinosa,
Haemaphysalis hystricis, Ixodes ricinus,
Ornithodoros moubata, and
Rhipicephalus sanguineus are also
putative vectors of B. gibsoni.
Continuous asexual culture and
establishment of genetic manipulation
enable the study of the mechanisms
underlying drug resistance and
host–parasite interactions, and provide
novel information for vaccine
development and drug target discovery.
DISEASE FACTS:
Clinical signs include remittent fever,
hemolytic anemia, weight loss,
hemoglobinuria, and marked
splenomegaly.
Infection is diagnosed mostly by
detecting parasites in red blood cells
through examination of Giemsa-stained
blood smears or PCR assays.
In many cases, incomplete treatment
regimens lead to low levels of
parasitemia, which develops into a
chronic subclinical carrier state.
Chronic subclinical carriers could act as
reservoirs for tick infection and disease
spread.
TAXONOMY AND CLASSIFICATION:
PHYLUM: Apicomplexa
CLASS: Aconoidasida
ORDER: Babesia sensu stricto
FAMILY: Babesiidae
GENUS: Babesia
SPECIES: B. gibsoni
*Correspondence:
gen@obihiro.ac.jp (X. Xuan).
Total cases reported
Babesia gibsoni global distribution
0 3,400 Miles
India
Japan
United States
Malaysia
China
South Korea
Sri Lanka
Singapore
Pakistan
Brazil
St. Kitts & Nevis
Zambia
Israel
Cabo Verde Bangladesh
PhilippinesThailand
Canada
Australia
Nicaragua
Egypt
Costa Rica
Nepal
Turkey
Angola
Qatar
Myanmar
Mexico
South Africa
Iran
Germany
Italy
Slovakia
Romania
Netherlands
Spain
Serbia
Belgium
Croatia
France
Austria Hungary
Poland
Czech Republic
Turkey
Sweden
0 540 Miles
United Kingdom
Europe
1-10 11-100 101-1000 1001-2000 2000
TrendsTrendsininParasitologyParasitology
Trends in Parasitology, Month 2022, Vol. xx, No. xx © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pt.2022.03.001 1
Trends in Parasitology | Parasite of the Month
Acknowledgments
Figure 1 was created using BioRender, and Figure 2 was created using Arcmap 10.2. This work was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (18H02336) and the JSPS
Core-to-Core program, both from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan, and a grant from Strategic International Collaborative Research Project
(JPJ008837) promoted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries of Japan.
Declaration of interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Resources
www.cdc.gov/parasites/babesiosis/
https://piroplasmadb.org/piro/app
Literature
1. Anderson, J.F. et al. (1979) Canine Babesia new to North America. Science 204, 1431–1432
2. Baneth, G. (2018) Antiprotozoal treatment of canine babesiosis. Vet. Parasitol. 254, 58–63
3. Fukumoto, S. et al. (2005) Fatal experimental transplacental Babesia gibsoni infections in dogs. Int. J. Parasitol. 35, 1031–1035
4. Goo, Y.K. and Xuan, X. (2014) New molecules in Babesia gibsoni and their application for diagnosis, vaccine development, and drug discovery. Korean J. Parasitol. 52,
345–353
5. Jalovecka, M. et al. (2019) Babesia life cycle – when phylogeny meets biology. Trends Parasitol. 35, 356–368
6. Liu, M. et al. (2018) Establishment of a stable transfection system for genetic manipulation of Babesia gibsoni. Parasit. Vectors 11, 260
7. Liu, M. et al. (2021) Tafenoquine is a promising drug candidate for the treatment of babesiosis. Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 65, e0020421
8. Matijatko, V. et al. (2012) Canine babesiosis in Europe: how many diseases? Trends Parasitol. 28, 99–105
9. Solano-Gallego, L. et al. (2016) A review of canine babesiosis: the European perspective. Parasit. Vectors 9, 336
10. Tsuji, N. et al. (2008) A cysteine protease is critical for Babesia spp. transmission in Haemaphysalis ticks. PLoS Pathog. 4, e1000062
Trends in Parasitology | Parasite of the Month
2 Trends in Parasitology, Month 2022, Vol. xx, No. xx © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pt.2022.03.001