Prevalência de Babesia bovis e Babesia bigemina em bovinos leiteiros de propriedade rural de Tupaciguara, Minas Gerais

Abstract

The bovine babesiosis is a hemoparasitosis caused, in Brazil and the rest of Latin America countries, by the protozoa Babesia bovis and Babesia bigemina, transmitted mainly by the tick Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus blood meal. It is responsible for economic loses on the bovine farming due to its high level of morbidity and mortality in the young animals. The study was realized in a dairy farm located in the city Tupaciguara - MG with bovines of the breed Holstein pure of origin (PO) and Gyr x Holstein of different ages and genders. It was made blood scrubbing for visualization of possible evolutive forms of Babesia spp., in addition to determining the prevalence according to the present protozoa species, the age group of the animals, gender and presence or not of the engorged tick adult. The research presented positivity values of 55.9% and 44.1%, respectively, besides 37.2% of concomitant infections. In relation to the gender of the animals, 30.5% of the females and 34.1% of the males were positives. According to the age group, there was positivity of 7.4%, 52.8% and 44.5%, for the groups with 3 to 12 months, 13 to 18 months and 19 to 30 months, respectively, besides 32.7% for animals Holstein PO and 30.3% for Gyr x Holstein. The prevalence of Babesia ssp. according with the presence or not of engorged tick adult was 100% and 9.3%, respectively. There was no significative difference between genders, age group, race and presence or not of engorged tick adult (p>0.05).