894 MICROBIOLOGY OF DISEASES OF MAN AND DOMESTIC ANIMALS 



bated by destroying the parasite, in infected persons with quinine, and 

 by isolating such persons under mosquito nets so that mosquitoes may 

 never have an opportunity of ingesting the parasites which they harbor 

 in their blood. Malaria may also be prevented by destroying the 

 mosquitoes which transmit it. The most efficient way of getting rid 

 of mosquitoes is to make it impossible for them to breed. The eggs 

 of a mosquito are laid in water, and water is absolutely necessary for 

 the larval and pupal stages, which must be passed through before the 

 adult mosquito is produced. Fish destroy developing mosquitoes and 

 large sheets of water are too rough for them so mosquitoes must 

 have, for breeding, rather small collections of fresh water free from 

 fish. Mosquitoes will soon disappear from a locality if all such col- 

 lections of water, within a quarter of a mile of it, are filled up, drained, 

 or covered with a film of coal oil so as to make it impossible for the 

 mosquitoes to breed in them. Those who live in a malarious district 

 should protect themselves from mosquito bites by the careful use of 

 mosquito-netting. By the simple observance of these evident indi- 

 cations, malaria has already been banished from several localities in 

 which it was formerly endemic. 



BABESIA (Starcovici, 1893) 



This order is often called PIROPLASMA. It includes many parasites, which 

 cause diseases of considerable economic importance in horses, cattle, sheep, and 

 dogs. One of the best-known species is Babesia bigemina, which causes Red- Water 

 or Texas Fever of cattle. The parasites which are associated with the numerous 

 babesiases are distinguished from one another by the host in which they are found, 

 by slight differences in their morphology and by their inoculability into various 

 animals. 



RED WATER 

 Babesia bigemina Smith and Kilborne, 1893 



Red water is one of the names given to a disease of cattle which is 

 characterized by haemoglobinuria; in the United States it is often called 

 Texas cattle fever. It is caused by Babesia boms (bigemina) (Fig. 

 191). The parasite is. transmitted by the bites of ticks, in North 

 America, by Boophilus annulatus. 



Red water occurs not only in the southern portion of the United 

 States but almost everywhere in the tropics and in many of the warmer 

 parts of the temperate zones. 



