Identification of an Alternate Host for Babesia bovis and Babesia bigemina

In the late 1800s, a disease known as “Texas Cattle Fever” became an economic and epidemiologic problem for cattle ranchers in Texas and parts of the southern United\nStates. A tick-borne hemoparasite known as Babesia which infects red blood cells of its hosts is the cause of this disease, which is sometimes also referred to as bovine\nbabesiosis. Tick vectors of Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) spp. carry the Babesia species and a 37 year eradication effort known as the Cattle Fever Tick Eradication Program was\nconducted to rid the country of these vectors. A Cattle Fever Tick quarantine buffer zone has been maintained since along the Texas-Mexico border, however, since this\nneighboring country failed to eradicate the tick, there is a threat of possible reintroduction and re-establishment of Cattle Fever Ticks in the U.S. The occurrence of\nfever tick outbreaks has become more frequent within recent years and the location of these outbreaks is moving further northward from the Texas-Mexico border. It is suspected that white-tailed deer and other wildlife ungulates are possible hosts of the blood-borne parasites, Babesia bovis and Babesia bigemina, which cause bovine