Preliminary Study of Babesia gibsoni Patton in Wild Carnivores and Domesticated Dogs in Egypt

Abstract

SUMMARY Three immature foxes, Vulpes vulpes niloticus (E. Geoffroy St. Hilaire), from the Mediterranean coastal desert near Burg El Arab, Egypt, were naturally infected by Babesia gibsoni Patton. Splenectomized jackals, Canis aureus lupaster (Hemprich and Ehrenberg), foxes, and domesticated dogs were experimentally infected with the parasite. Morphologic features of the parasite were similar in all animals and were similar to those previously recorded for organisms harbored by infected animals from India and West Africa.