AUTHOR=Liu Junlong , Guan Guiquan , Li Youquan , Liu Aihong , Luo Jianxun , Yin Hong 

TITLE=A Molecular Survey of Babesia Species and Detection of a New Babesia Species by DNA Related to B. venatorum from White Yaks in Tianzhu, China

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology

VOLUME=8

YEAR=2017

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2017.00419

DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2017.00419

ISSN=1664-302X

ABSTRACT=<p>Bovine babesiosis is a tick-transmitted disease caused by different species of <italic>Babesia</italic>. The white yak is a unique yak breed that lives only in Tianzhu in the Tibetan Autonomous County, Gansu Province, in northwestern China. Previous research using the ELISA method has confirmed that the white yak could become infected with <italic>B. bigemina</italic>. The objective of this study was the molecular detection and identification of <italic>Babesia</italic> species in white yaks. A total of 409 white yak blood samples were collected from 11 areas of the Tianzhu Tibetan Autonomous County in Northwest China from April to August, 2015. The V4 hypervariable region of <italic>Babesia</italic> 18S rRNA was amplified from extracted genomic DNA using nested PCR and sequenced. The nearly full-length sequence of 18S rRNA including the V4 region from the newly discovered <italic>Babesia</italic> was amplified and sequenced with Sanger method. PCR detection and sequencing indicated that 4/409 samples were positive for <italic>B. bigemina</italic>, 3/409 samples were positive for <italic>B. bovis</italic>, and 5/409 samples were positive for <italic>B. ovata.</italic> Additionally, a new <italic>Babesia</italic> species was found in 4/409 white yaks. A unique sequence of 1,627 bp was obtained from two of the four samples. The sequence was similar to <italic>Babesia</italic> species Akita (98.5%) found in <italic>Ixodes ovatus</italic> and <italic>B. venatorum</italic> (98%) and shared a 98% identity with <italic>B. divergens</italic> and a 98.1% identity with <italic>B. odocoilei</italic>. This study provides new data about <italic>Babesia</italic> infections in white yaks in northwestern China, and a new <italic>Babesia</italic> species similar to <italic>B. venatorum</italic> was identified in white yaks for the first time.</p>