RESULTS OF RECONNAISSANCE STUDIES ON DETECTION OF BABESIOSIS FOCI IN THE IRKUTSK REGION

This article contains results of reconnaissance studies intended to find foci of babesia in the Irkutsk region. Babesia DNA were founded in two types of ticks (I. persulcatus, H. concinna) in the three districts of the Irkutsk region (Ekhirit-Bulagatsky, Irkutsky, Shelekhovsky). The analysis of 1220 nr length nucleotide sequences of 18S rRNA gene of five Babesia samples was conducted. It was shown that the identified Babesia sequenced differ from previously known, and refer to the two genetic groups. The first group included babesia, genetically most similar to the sheep pathogen Babesia crassa, second contains sample, nucleotide sequence of which is significantly different from all known (less than 95 % homology).