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a Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, 77843 USA
Key Words: B. divergens • human babesiosis • small subunit ribosomal RNA gene • intervening transcribed spacer • eastern cottontail rabbit
Address for correspondence: Patricia J. Holman, Ph.D., Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843. Voice: 979-845–4202; fax: 979-862-2344. e-mail: pholman{at}cvm.tamu.edu
The causative agent of human babesiosis in a Kentucky case, which was first identified as Babesia divergens, is identical to a parasite of eastern cottontail rabbits on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts based on piroplasm size, morphology, and ribosomal RNA sequence analysis. Studies showing differential infectivity for cattle, host erythrocyte specificity in vitro, parasite size and morphology in vitro, and ribosomal RNA sequences clearly demonstrate that the parasite from the rabbit (conspecific with the human Kentucky agent) is not the same organism as B. divergens.
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