Diagnosis of canine babesiosis by conventional and molecular techniques Debbarma Khumali*, Kolte S.W., Jadhav S.G., Kaore M., Kurkure N.V., Gawande P. Department of Veterinary Parasitology, Nagpur Veterinary College, Maharashtra Animal and Fishery Sciences University, Maharashtra-440006, India *Corresponding author. Email: khomalidebbarma@gmail.com
Online Published on 22 August, 2023. Abstract A study was conducted to detect the presence of Babesia canis and Babesia gibsoni in dogs from Nagpur city based on blood smear examination and polymerase chain reaction assay. A total of 105 blood samples were collected from dogs. Microscopic examination of Giemsa stained blood smears revealed 11.42% (12/105) prevalence of Babesia spp. infection of which 6.66% (7/105) were positive for B. canis and 4.76% (5/105) were positive for B. gibsoni infection. However, in molecular diagnosis based on PCR assay targeting 18S rRNA gene, 20% (21/105) samples were positive for Babesia spp. infection. Out of 21 PCR positive samples, 11.42% (12/105) samples were positive for B. canis and 8.5% (9/105) samples were positive for B. gibsoni. The sequences were assigned with accession numbers OK271422 (B. canis isolate) and OK271428 (B. gibsoni isolate) and had similarity of 98.16% and 98.65%, respectively, with 18S ribosomal RNA gene sequences of B. canis and B. gibsoni. The study outlined the superiority of molecular techniques in the detection of pathogens. Top Keywords Babesia canis, Babesia gibsoni, Microscopy, Polymerase Chain Reaction. Top |