EXPERIMENTAL TRANSMISSION OF BABESIA-MICROTI INFECTION BY THE ORAL ROUTE

Citation
F. Malagon et Jl. Tapia, EXPERIMENTAL TRANSMISSION OF BABESIA-MICROTI INFECTION BY THE ORAL ROUTE, Parasitology research, 80(8), 1994, pp. 645-648
Citations number
21
Categorie Soggetti
Parasitiology
Journal title
ISSN journal
09320113
Volume
80
Issue
8
Year of publication
1994
Pages
645 - 648
Database
ISI
SICI code
0932-0113(1994)80:8<645:ETOBIB>2.0.ZU;2-1
Abstract
Previously we have described the transmission of malaria by the oral r oute in a murine model. Due to the similarities between Plasmodium and Babesia, we tried to reproduce oral transmission in parasites of the latter genus by ingestion of infected blood and by cannibalism. In the first case, experimental mice were inoculated orally with 20, 50, or 100 mu l of Babesia microti-infected blood, and in the second, each fa sted experimental mouse was offered the corpse of an infected mouse se rving as the bait inoculum. B. microti infection was acquired by 3.7% of all experimental animals orally inoculated with infected blood and by 15.1% of all mice inoculated by cannibalism. The approximate period of prepatency ran from 2 to 4 weeks. No control mouse acquired the in fection. This represents the first time that oral transmission of babe siosis has been described. This kind of transmission may be present in nature. Babesiosis may be acquired and maintained in nature in the ab sence of ticks.