ABSTRACT
The epidemiology of babesiosis is a difficult subject since as a vector-borne disease; babesiosis has a very complex interrelationship between the vector and the host. Descriptive epidemiology is the collection of field observations in order to determine how the epidemiology of the parasite exists in the field. The epidemiology of babesiosis was first studied in the US A veterinarian working for the US government, D.E. Salmon, had noted by 1885 that a disease of cattle known as Texas fever showed a pattern of occurrence which could not be explained by any known mechanism of disease transmission. The tick vector is an extremely important component of the epidemiology of babesiosis. New techniques such as the use of monoclonal antibodies against Babesia species and DNA probes may have applications in the epidemiology of babesiosis, at least as population markers. Several concepts in the epidemiology of tick-borne diseases, in general, have emerged from the studies by D. F. Mahoney.
