Vaccines against bovine babesiosis: where we are now and possible roads ahead

JACOBSEN FLORIN-CHRISTENSEN, M.; SUAREZ, C.E.; RODRIGUEZ, A; FLORES, D.; SCHNITTGER, L

PARASITOLOGY

CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS

Año: 2014 p. 1 - 107

0031-1820

Bovine babesiosis caused by the tick transmitted hemoprotozoans Babesia bovis, B.bigemina, and B. divergens commonly results in considerable cattle morbidity and mortality in vast world areas. Although existing live vaccines confer protection, they have considerable disadvantages. Therefore, particularly in countries where large numbers of cattle heads are at risk, important research efforts are done to develop improved vaccination strategies. Here a comprehensive overview on currently used live vaccines and of the status quo of experimental vaccine trials is presented. In addition, the state of art of pertinent research fields potentially contributing to the development of novel non-liveand/or live vaccines are delineated, including parasite antigens involved in host cellinvasion and in pathogen-tick interactions, as well as the protective immunity against infection. The systematic mining of available parasite genomes is continuously enlarging the array of potential vaccine candidates and, additionally, the recent development of a transfection tool for Babesia can signifcantly contribute to vaccine design. However, the complication and high cost of vaccination trials is a bottleneck of Babesia vaccine research, and have so far seriously limited the systematic testing of antigen candidates and prevented an in-depth trial of formulations using different immunomodulators and antigen delivery systems.