..::Veterinary Serum and Vaccine Research Institute::..

J. Egypt. Vet. Med . Ass.61,No6, 77-89 (2001)

Molecular characterization of Babesia bovis and Babesia bigemina
Egyptian strains using SDS- PAGE and western blot

Romany, M,M.; Amani, W. farah; A.M. abbas; Elham,
A.El-Ebiary; Dimitri, R.A and Daoud, A.M.

Veterinary Serum and Vaccine Research Institute,
Abbassia, P.O.B. 131, Cairo, Egypt

Summary

	Three Egyptian isolates of either babesia bovis (B. bovis) or babesia bigemina (B.bigemina ) were characterized by sodium dodocyl sulfate poly acrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and immunoblot (Western blot) to detect their different polypeptides of the protozoan and their reactivity to antibabesial positive sera.

	SDS-PAGE showed 16 antigenic bands for B.bovis and 19 for B.bigemina There were many similar bands within the same species as well as differences in some other bands.

	Antibabesial polyclonal positive sera reacted with the specific electrophoresed babesial antigens B. bovis hyper immune sera reacted to the epitopes of b.bovis antigens have 220, 87, 85, 80- 78, 80- 71,26,19 and 25 kilo Daltons (KDa) molecular weights. While B. bigemina hyper immune sera reacted to epitopes of 85 and 80 KDa of B. bovis antigens Also B. bigemina hyper immun sera showed the specific antigen bands of 82,75 and 26 KDa of B. bigemina antigens.