Luke Michaelides, [09 May 2024 at 17:50:25]: Good evening everyone, Has anyone seen any clinical cases of Babesia in Burchell’s zebra? I have a client in KZN that has lost 5 zebra since December on his small 50ha farm. The animals don’t show many symptoms of being sick - the first signs that are show are recumbency and then death within a few hours. Other species such as impala and nyala are unaffected. I did a PM today - marked lung oedema, slightly pale carcass and only a few ticks present. General body condition of the animals is very good. The blood smear however was full of Babesia parasites. I’ve read that zebra are susceptible to Babesia infections but that clinical disease is rare. Do you think that the Babesia could be causing the deaths or might there be something else going on and the high levels of parasitaemia are just incidental? Neil Parsons, [09 May 2024 at 17:57:43]: I’ve seen a couple of cases in Zambia. There were no noticeable symptoms of illness at all. On PM examination, lung oedema was present and severe anaemia. Given the high parasitaemia and serious tick burden, I also attributed those cases to Babesia. I didn’t look into it any further than PM and blood smears though. Roy Bengis, [09 May 2024 at 19:02:45]: I frequently found low parasitaemia of Babesia organisms in routine blood smear examination in the Kruger National Park. This was part of routine anthrax surveillance and in research into African horse sickness in zebras. I only once saw a zebra stallion that appeared to be immune-compromised that had severe Babesia parasitaemia plus generalized Dermatophilus infestation.
