Theileria (Jenkins, 2018)

Huaman, Jose L., Pacioni, Carlo, Forsyth, David M., Pople, Anthony, Hampton, Jordan O., Helbig, Karla J. & Carvalho, Teresa G., 2021, Evaluation of haemoparasite and Sarcocystis infections in Australian wild deer, International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife 15, pp. 262-269 : 266

4.2. Theileria and Babesia infections

Theileria and Babesia parasites are endemic in livestock in Queensland and northern NSW, with B. bovis causing more than 80% of the reported outbreaks of tick fever in cattle in Queensland and northern New South Wales ( Bock et al., 2006; Jenkins, 2018). Moreover, the cattle tick, Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus , which is the vector of B. bovis , has widely spread in Queensland ( Cutulle et al., 2009). These factors, together with the fact that Babesia spp. were detected in cervids from Europe ( Remesar et al., 2019; Zanet et al., 2014), Asia (Zamoto-- Niikura et al., 2018), and America ( Cantu et al., 2009; da Silveira et al., 2011), make it possible that wild Australian deer might carry some of these parasites. While the small number of whole blood samples collected from chital deer in Queensland (n = 4), limited our opportunities for detecting infected animals, we explored the presence of antibodies against B. bovis in a group of serum samples from the same site and deer species. These analysis suggested that chital deer are not exposed to Babesia parasites. However, these serum samples were collected in a relatively small geographical area (75 km radius) and further investigations would be needed to confirm that Babesia spp. are absent from wild deer in Queensland.