Vaccination against large Babesia species from dogs.

The original observation of Sibinovic that soluble parasite antigens (SPA) of B. canis could be used to protect dogs against challenge infection formed the starting point for the development of an effective vaccine. With the advent of in vitro cultivation techniques for haemoprotozoan parasites an important tool became available for the commercial production of the vaccine antigens. A first generation vaccine was developed for dogs, but it appeared that the level of protection induced was not complete. In contrast to what was found with the SPA from serum/plasma of infected animals, protection induced with SPA from a single Babesia canis strain protected against a homologous challenge infection only. Further research led to the discovery that a combination of SPA of B. canis and SPA of B. rossi induced a broad spectrum of immunity. This improved vaccine, Nobivac Piro, not only induces protection against heterologous B. canis infection, but also against heterologous B. rossi infection.