An overview on present situation babesiosis and theileriosis and their distribution of ticks in Iran

Theileriosis and babesiosis are two important parasitic diseases causing economic detriment in Iran and the world. Although, abundant and  scattered investigations up to now were performed on babesiosis and theileriosis and their vectors by researcher in Iran but the present situation of these are not clear. The aim of this study was to investigate publications has been published regarding these diseases and the vectors in Iran.

This ,Systematic Review ,study was conducted using bibliographic records from the different databases and citation indexes restricted to a periodic domain during 1960-2010 and Iran regarding such as Google Scholar, Pubmed, Sciencedirect, IranMedex, ISI, Magiran, etc. Moreover, available abstract books of national and international congress were also evaluated.

The results of published papers showed that seven genus of hard ticks as carriers of babesia and theileria are present in Iran, and the most studies on the distribution of hard ticks has frequently been done in littoral areas of Caspian Sea. The majority of studies have been focused on sheep, and subsequently the most common species of the parasites were T. lestoqurdi and B. ovis and also restricted survey was done on prevalence of human babesiosis in Iran.

Our result showed ,despite the different weather conditions, there is no difference between the prevalence of the diseases in different ecological zones of Iran. We suggest that according to the high distribution of hard ticks throughout Iran, this issue requires further studies regarding typing of different species of babesia and theileria parasite and their hard tick as vectors using novel techniques in different ecological zones of Iran.