Artemisone inhibits in vitro and in vivo propagation of Babesia bovis and B. bigemina parasites

•Bovine babesiosis is an economically important disease of cattle.•Drugs with high specificity towards the parasite and low toxicity are required.•Artemisone a novel artemisinin derivative is effective against apicomplexa parasites.•In vitro, artemisone reduced parasitemia in a dose-dependent manner.•In calves artemisone was well tolerated and prevent development of acute babesiosis.

Artemisone was evaluated, in in vitro and in vivo, for control of bovine babesiosis caused by Babesia bigemina and Babesiabovis parasites. In vitro, artemisone reduced parasitemia in a dose-dependent manner: the inhibitory effects increased gradually, reaching a maximum inhibition of 99.6% and 86.4% for B. bigemina and B. bovis, respectively 72 h after initiation of treatment with initial parasitemia of 0.5%. In calves infected with either B. bigemina or B. bovis artemisone treatment was well tolerated and prevented development of acute babesiosis in all animals except for one B. bovis-infected calf. The treatment did not eliminate all blood parasites, and recovered animals carried a persistent low-level infection. Treatment with artemisone may be useful as an alternative drug for preventing the pathology that results from babesiosis, without interfering with acquired immune protection following recovery from an acute babesiosis infection or vaccination.

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