Babesia
| Babesia | |
|---|---|
| Blood smear of Babesia microti | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Clade: | Diaphoretickes |
| Clade: | SAR |
| Clade: | Alveolata |
| Phylum: | Apicomplexa |
| Class: | Aconoidasida |
| Order: | Piroplasmida |
| Family: | Babesiidae |
| Genus: | Babesia Starcovici, 1893 |
| Species | |
B. microti ("Archaeopiroplasmida") group:
Western US ("Prototheilerids") group:
| |
Babesia, also called Nuttallia, is an apicomplexan parasite that infects red blood cells and is transmitted by ticks. Originally discovered by the Romanian bacteriologist Victor Babeș in 1888, over 100 species of Babesia have since been identified.
Babesia comprises more than 100 species of tick-borne parasites that infect erythrocytes (red blood cells) in many vertebrate hosts.
Babesia species infect livestock worldwide, wild and domestic vertebrate animals, and occasionally humans, where they cause the disease babesiosis. In the United States, B. microti is the most common strain of the few which have been documented to cause disease in humans.
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