Babesia microti (Aconoidasida: Piroplasmida) (Franca, 1910) is an emerging tick-borne parasite with rodents serving as the considered reservoir host. However, the distribution of B. microti in Europe is insufficiently characterized. Based on the sample of 1180 rodents from 19 study sites in Lithuania, the objectives of this study were: (1) to investigate the presence of Babesia parasites in eight species of rodents, (2) to determine the prevalence of Babesia parasites in rodents from different habitats, and (3) to characterize the detected Babesia strains using partial sequencing of the 18S rRNR gene. Babesia DNA was detected in 2.8% rodents. The highest prevalence of Babesia was found in Microtus oeconomus (14.5%) and Microtus agrestis (7.1%) followed by Clethrionomys glareolus (2.3%), Apodemus flavicollis (2.2%) and Micromys minutus (1.3%). In M.minutus, Babesia was identified for the first time. The prevalence of Babesia-infected rodents was higher in the meadow (5.67%) than in the ecotone (1.69%) and forest (0.31%) habitats. The sequence analysis of the partial 18S rRNA gene reveals that Babesia isolates derived from rodents were 99-100% identical to human pathogenic B. microti 'Jena/Germany' strain.
Keywords: 18S rRNA; Babesia; Lithuania; mice; rodents; voles.