DNA PROBES FOR DETECTION OF BABESIA-OVATA OR THE BABESIA SP1 - A NEWLY ISOLATED BOVINE BABESIA PARASITE IN JAPAN

We have recently reported the presence of a Babesia ovata like large i ntraerythrocytic parasite, Babesia sp.1 in the cattle population of Ho kkaido in Japan. A 5.5 kilobase (kb) DNA fragment that showed cross-hy bridization with the BOZAP6, a DNA probe derived from B. ovata genome, was cloned from the Babesia sp.1 genome and characterized. Beside a s equence that conferred the cross-hybridization, the fragment contained the parasite-specific sequence that did not hybridize with DNAs from B. ovata, B. bigemina, B. bovis, Theileria sergenti, Anaplasma margina le, A. centrale, Eperythrozoon wenyoni and bovine white blood cells. T he Babesia sp.1 specific region on the 5.5 kb fragment was excised and subcloned into a plasmid vector as parasite-specific DNA probe (SpS7) . Babesia ovata-specific DNA probe (OvS9) was also obtained by deletin g a sequence that confers the cross-hybridization with Babesia sp.1 fr om original BOZAP6 DNA. SpS7 or OvS9 was sensitive enough to detect 5 ng of DNA either from Babesia sp. 1 or B. ovata, respectively. These D NA probes, sensitive and either specific for B. ovata or Babesia sp.1, could be useful tools in epidemiological studies to analyze the varia tions in the bovine Babesia species in Japan.