Prevalence of Babesia the blood parasite and Rhipicephalus sanguineus ticks in dogs in Urmia

Babesiosis is an important disease in canines that different species of Babesia, including Babesia gibsoni and Babesia canis can cause it. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of Babesiosis and its vector ticks in dogs in Urmia. A total of 136 dogs were randomly selected from commercial, domestic, herding, guard, and stray dogs to evaluate the prevalence of Rhipicephalus sanguineus and 165 dogs to investigate Babesiosis infection. Ticks were isolated from the animal's skin along the oral appendages. Blood samples were taken from cephalic and saphenous veins and thin blood smears were prepared. Blood smears were stained and then were examined under a microscope and the ticks isolated from the dogs were carefully observed in the laboratory. 23 (13.9%) positive samples of Babesiosis were identified out of 165 dogs examined for Babesiosis, the highest number belonged to stray dogs with the number of 10 (6.06%) and the lowest number belonged to the commercial dogs with the number of 2 (1.21%). Out of 136 dogs studied for foreign parasites, 47 (34.5%) dogs were identified as infected with the Rhipicephalus sanguineus, the highest and the lowest numbers of infected dogs were 26 for stray dogs (19.11%) and 3 for domestic dogs (2.2%) respectively. Statistical analysis showed a significant relation between infection and age of dogs (p<0.05). There was no statistically significant relationship between the level of infection and sex, how dogs were kept (p>0.05).