Bovine besnoitiosis, an economically important disease in cattle in some countries of Africa and Asia, is emerging in Europe. The definitive host of Besnoitia besnoiti, the causative agent of bovine besnoitiosis, is unknown and the transmission of the parasite is not completely understood. Sensitive and quantitative DNA detection methods are needed to determine whether serologically positive an...

Besnoitia besnoiti was first described by Besnoit & Robin (1912), who observed the thick-walled parasitic cysts in the skin of a chronically infected cow in Southern France. The crescentic organisms within the cysts, which they called spores, will be referred to as cyst forms or cyst organisms in this discussion , in contradistinction to proliferative forms which are encountered in macrophages ...

Besnoitia besnoiti is an economically important tissue cyst-forming apicomplexan of cattle in Africa and Israel. Tissue cysts and bradyzoites of B. besnoiti from the skin of a naturally infected bull were studied by transmission electron microscopy. Tissue cysts enclosed host cell and bradyzoites. Bradyzoites were 6-7.5 x 1.9-2.3 microm in size and contained organelles found in coccidian merozo...

Rabbits were infected with a bovine strain of Besnoitia besnoiti parasites derived from VERO cell cultures. Oxytetracycline, given at 30 mg/kg i.m. simultaneously with infection, prevented the development of orchitis. The controls received no treatment. All infected animals showed a transient febrile reaction. It is concluded that oxytetracycline has some therapeutic potential against Besnoitia...

The apicomplexan parasite Besnoitia besnoiti is the causative agent of bovine besnoitiosis that affects livestock, particularly cattle. The definitive host of B. besnoiti is unknown and its transmission only partially understood. Here, we report the first draft genome sequence, assembly, and annotation of this parasite.

Colostral antibodies to B. besnoiti were detected by immunofluorescence in four calves born to two Besnoitia-infected dams, with titres ranging from 1:64 to 1:1024. A specific antibody titre of 1:1024 was found in colostrum collected from one of the dams. Two of the newborn calves, when sampled immediately after birth, were serologically negative to B. besnoiti, but became positive on the next ...

Sera from non-infected cattle and cattle infected with Anaplasma, Babesia, Theileria and Sarcocystis were tested for antibodies to Besnoitia in ELISA and immunofluorescence tests (IFT) with Besnoitia besnoiti of blue wildebeest origin as antigen. Only 2 out of 86 sera gave false positive reactions in ELISA and none in the IFT, indicating a high specificity for the tests. Three-hundred-and-three...

A total of 17 head of cattle presenting with typical "Elephant skin disease" were isolated from the rest of the herd within a beef ranch for further clinical observation. On physical examination, all the animals had characteristic sclero-conjunctival cysts of Besnoitia besnoiti. In addition, some of the animals had characteristic skin nodules on the legs, ears and back. Histological examination...

Background: Besnoitiosis caused by Besnoitia besnoiti is regarded as a re-emerging disease in cattle because of the increased number of cases and geographical distribution in many European countries. Aims: The present study was conducted to determine the presence of B. besnoiti in cattle in the Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia of Turkey. <str...

Soluble antigens from Besnoitia besnoiti cell culture-grown endozoites, obtained either by hypotonic lysis or by freeze-thawing and ultrasonication (FTS) of the organisms, were detected by the agar gel immunodiffusion method. Each antigenic preparation yielded 1-4 precipitin lines when reacted with the corresponding rabbit hyperimmune serum, while no reaction was observed with Besnoitia-positiv...