SEROEPIDEMIOLOGY OF BABESIA BIGEMINA IN CATTLE IN THE KONYA PROVINCE, TURKEY: ENDEMIC STATUS

This study was designed to determine the seroepidemiology of Babesia bigemina in cattle in the Turkish province of Konya. Between April 2006 and March 2007, a total of 770 cattle were randomly selected, assigned to different age groups (i.e. 0 to 3 months, 3 to 6 months, 6 to 9 months, 9 to 12 months, 12 10 24 months, 24 to 36 months, and older than 36 months) and coming from the Kadinham, cumra, and Beysehir districts and in Konya city centre. B. bigemina was diagnosed by microscopic examination of blood smears and indirect fluorescent antibody testing. Parasites were observed in 1.95% of blood smears and 42.9% of animals were positive for B. bigemina antibodies. The seropositivity rate of B. bigemina in cattle in Kadinham, cumra, Beysehir, and Konya was 33.52%, 44.3%, 37.9%, and 54.8%, respectively. The rates of seropositivity according to age group were 5.3%, 14.3%, 35.4%, 74.8%, 44.0%, 39.8%, and 46.9%, respectively. The endemic status of the disease was determined by calculating the inoculation rate (h) of each age group. The It value was detected to be lower than 0.005 in each group and the endemic status of B. bigemina was found to be unstable, Research centres were visited regularly each month and the an were examined for tick in On examination, 101 ticks were collected and their species identified. The identified tick species were Hyalomma anatolicum anatolicum, Hyalomma anatolicum excavatum. Hyalomma marginatum marginatum. Ixodes ricinus, Dermacentor marginatus, Rhipicephalus bursa, Rhipicephalus turanicus, Rhipicephalus sanguineus, Ornithodoros lahorensis, Haemaphysalis parva, Haemaphysalis sp. (nymph) and Hyalomma sp. (nymph).