Ticks and tick-borne diseases are the main
problems affecting the livestock production in Egypt.
Bovine babesiosis has adverse effects on the animal health
and production. A comparison of Giemsa stained blood
smears, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and nested PCR
(nPCR) assays for detection of Babesia bovis infection in
Egyptian Baladi cattle (Bos taurus) in reference to reverse
line blot was carried out. The sensitivity of PCR and nested
PCR (nPCR) assays were 65 and 100 % respectively.
Giemsa stained blood smears showed the lowest sensitivity
(30 %). According to these results using of PCR and nPCR
target for B. bovis, [BBOV-IV005650 (BV5650)] gene are
suitable for diagnosis of B. bovis infection. The 18Ss rRNA
partial sequence confirmed that all the positive samples
were Babesia bovis and all of them were deposited in the
GenBank databases (Accession No: KM455548,
KM455549 and KM455550).