CHRONIC BABESIOSIS OF DROUGHT HORSES IN BASRAH PROVINCE, BASRAH- IRAQ

The aim of the present work was to study chronic Babesiosis in drought horses in Basrah ,Iraq. Sixteen drought local breed horses more than (5) years old of both sexes were used in this study, show signs of generalized debility and icteric mucous membranes .The study were carried out in Basrah ,Iraq .Five clinically healthy local breed horses were considered as controls .Results revealed that diseased drought horses show signs of complete anorexia , severe emaciation and evident loss of body weight with poor tolerance , icteric mucous membranes of eyes, bulging of supra orbital fossa , edema were detected around fetlock joint, dehydration ,hemoglobinuria with intermittent episodes of colicky signs, Moreover , on clinical examination, diseased horses show shallow rapid respiration and accelerated strong heart beats with normal body temperature ,Moreover diseased horses suffering from constipation or diarrhea with presence or absence of cecal borborygmi sounds. Statistically significant increase were encountered in, respiratory , heart rates, and capillary refilling time, Furthermore Babesia caballi were detected microscopically on blood smears Giemsa stained, as large paired or crescent-shaped parasites ,Moreover it were also seen as , single and double pyriform with obtuse or acute angle in side the erythrocytes, In addition hematological examination of diseased horses with Babesiosis caballi revealed anemia represented by significant decrease in total erythrocytes count ,hemoglobin concentration and packed cell volume which were reflected macrocytic normochromic type due to significant increase in mean corpuscular volume ,Furthermore no significant difference were encountered in total and differential leukocytes count between diseased animals and controls ,in addition results were indicated no significant difference in clotting factors indices .It haven been concluded that chronic Babesiosis infected horses results in obvious hemolytic anemia and sever debility of diseased drought horses