Functional analysis of Babesia bigemina. Babesia bigemina strain:Bond

Members of the genus Babesia are Apicomplexan parasites commonly referred to as the 'piroplasms'. They have a two-host life-cycle involving a tick and a mammal. Out of at least six Babesia species that have a considerable impact on livestock health and productivity, two species, Babesia bovis and Babesia bigemina have the greatest effect. B. bigemina is distributed wherever Boophilus ticks are encountered, which includes North and South America, Southern Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. In cattle disease caused by B. bigemina is also known as 'Texas cattle fever' or 'red-water fever'. In cattle, the parasite can cause massive destruction of the red blood cells leading to severe anaemia and hemoglobinuria. This result in red urine (due to haemoglobin in urine) and the disease can kill a cow within a week. We have obtained high sequence coverage of Illumina reads coupled with capillary read coverage of 8X. Illumina sequencing reads are being used for improving the assembly and for accurate base calling.