''Babesia bigemina'' is a species of

alveolates The alveolates (meaning "pitted like a honeycomb") are a group of protists, considered a major clade and superphylum within Eukarya. They are currently grouped with the stramenopiles and Rhizaria among the protists with tubulocristate mitochond ...

belonging to the phylum

Apicomplexa The Apicomplexa (also called Apicomplexia) are a large phylum of parasitic alveolates. Most of them possess a unique form of organelle that comprises a type of non-photosynthetic plastid called an apicoplast, and an apical complex structure. Th ...

and the family Babesiidae, a type of protozoan parasite. In cattle, it causes

babesiosis Babesiosis or piroplasmosis is a malaria-like parasitic disease caused by infection with a eukaryotic parasite in the order Piroplasmida, typically a ''Babesia'' or '' Theileria'', in the phylum Apicomplexa. Human babesiosis transmission via ...

, also called "Texas fever". Its length is 4–5 µm and its width is 2–3 µm. Usually, it has an oval shape. In blood cells, it is located midsagittally and can reach up to two-thirds of the diameter of the blood cell in size. It is transmitted by ''Boophilus'' ticks which are prevalent in the tropics. The genome for ''B. bigemina'' is incomplete and unassembled.

Further reading