REVIEW article
Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol.
Sec. Parasite and Host
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2025.1575227
Research progress on diagnostic techniques for different Babesia species in persistent infections
Provisionally accepted
Zelin Jia1
Yuliang Zhang2Donghui Zhao2Haifeng Wang3Ming Yu3
Zhilin Liu1
Xin Zhang1
Jiayu Cui1
Xueli Wang1*- 1Inner Mongolia University for Nationalities, Tongliao, China
- 2Tongliao City Animal Quarantine Technical Service Centre, Tongliao, China
- 3Tongliao Institute of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Sciences, Tongliao, China
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Babesiosis, a zoonotic parasitic disease caused by Babesia protozoa, poses significant infection risks across mammalian species. Clinical manifestations in vertebrate hosts range from spontaneous abortion to fatal outcomes, with immunocompromised individuals potentially transmitting the pathogen through blood products or transplanted organs, thereby amplifying epidemiological risks. Effective disease management carries substantial public health implications for livestock production, companion animal welfare, and food safety in endemic regions. In global endemic zones, conventional diagnostic approaches combine morphological identification of Babesia spp. with complementary serological assays. Contemporary molecular diagnostics, particularly nucleic acid amplification techniques, have emerged as valuable adjunctive tools. A critical challenge in veterinary practice involves persistent subclinical carriers among treated livestock populations, necessitating precise parasite speciation for effective transmission control. This review synthesizes recent advancements in babesiosis detection methodologies, with particular emphasis on their implementation in clinical microbiology laboratories. This article introduces the latest progress in Babesiosis detection technology and its application in clinical microbiology laboratories, to provide a theoretical and practical basis for the comprehensive prevention and control of Babesiosis.Introduction: Babesiosis, caused by apicomplexan parasites of the genus Babesia, represents the second most prevalent blood-borne parasitic disease in vertebrates after trypanosomiasis (Penzhorn, 2006;Cook and Puri, 2024). Since Victor Babes' seminal description of bovine babesiosis in Romania (1888), over 100 Babesia spp.have been taxonomically identified. The primary transmission vector remains ticks, with secondary routes including erythrocyte transfusion, transplacental transmission, and organ transplantation (Wudhikarn et al.
Keywords: Babesia, Diagnostic techniques, Serological detection, Molecular Biology, Research advances
Received: 12 Feb 2025; Accepted: 24 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Jia, Zhang, Zhao, Wang, Yu, Liu, Zhang, Cui and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Xueli Wang, Inner Mongolia University for Nationalities, Tongliao, China
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