Study on some molecular characterization of Babesia orientalis

Abstract The study on buffalo babesiosis indicated that its pathogen was different from other Babesia on many aspects such as morphology, transmission and pathogenicity. Therefore, it was named as a new species— Babesia orientalis . In order to prove the validity of this taxon, molecular taxonomic study on the pathogen was done in this experiment. The complete 18S rRNA gene sequence of B. orientalis was determined by PCR. It was sequenced and blasted. The results indicated that the classification of the parasite belonged to the genus Babesia. The 1700 bp complete sequence was compared with 15 other Babesia sp. available in GenBank. The data were analyzed and a phylogenetic tree was established. The results indicated that the hereditary distance of the parasite was close to that of Babesia sp. from South Africa and Babesia ovis , and the hereditary distance was far from Babesia bigemina and B. bovis .