The genera Babesia and Theileria (phylum Apicomplexa, order Piroplasmida) are mainly transmitted by Ixodid ticks in which the sexual part of their life cycle followed by sporogony takes place. They include protozoan parasites that infect erythrocytes of a variety of vertebrate hosts, including domestic and wild animals, with some Babesia spp. also infecting humans. Babesia sporozoites transmitted in the tick's saliva during the bloodmeal directly infect erythrocytes, where they asexually multiply to produce pear-shaped merozoites in the process of merogony; whereas a pre-erythrocytic schizogonic life stage in leukocytes is found in Theileria and precedes merogony in the erythrocytes. The wide spectrum of Babesia and Theileria species and their dissimilar characteristics with relation to disease severity, transmission, epidemiology, and drug susceptibility stress the importance of accurate detection of babesiosis and theileriosis and their causative agents. These guidelines review the main methods currently used for the detection of Babesia and Theileria spp. for diagnostic purposes as well as epidemiological studies involving their vertebrate hosts and arthropod vectors. Serological methods were not included once they did not indicate current infection but rather exposure.

A survey of infectious and parasitic diseases of stray cats was carried out using biological samples collected from animals captured during a catch-neuter-release programme in four counties of the Lisbon Metropolitan Area. The main objective was to investigate the potential threat of stray cats for animal and public health. Samples of blood, stool, hair and auricular swabs were collected from 231 cats in 27 colonies. Anti- Toxoplasma gondii antibodies were detected in 47/194 samples (24.2%); anti- Leishmania infantum antibodies in 1/180 cats (0.6%); intestinal parasites in 23/74 samples ( Toxocara cati, Isospora felis, Ancylostoma tubaeforme, Dipylidium caninum, Uncinaria stenocephala, Toxascaris leonina) and Otodectes cynotis in 4/182 cats (2.2%); dermatophyte fungi were isolated in 40/136 samples (29.4%); feline immunodeficiency virus antibodies were detected in 23/226 samples (10.2%); feline leukaemia virus antigen in 14/198 samples (7.1%); and feline coronavirus RNA in 9/127 samples (7.1%). Our results revealed that zoonotic agents, namely dermatophyte fungi and Toxocara cati were present in stray cat colonies in the investigated counties. Overall the low frequency of major pathogens suggests a balanced relationship between host and agents.

The genus Rickettsia (Rickettsiales: Rickettsiaceae) includes Gram-negative, small, obligate intracellular, nonmotile, pleomorphic coccobacilli bacteria transmitted by arthropods. Some of them cause human and probably also animal disease (life threatening in some patients). In these guidelines, we give clinical practice advices (microscopy, serology, molecular tools, and culture) for the microbiological study of these microorganisms in clinical samples. Since in our environment rickettsioses are mainly transmitted by ticks, practical information for the identification of these arthropods and for the study of Rickettsia infections in ticks has also been added.

A global phylogeny for chelonid fibropapilloma-associated herpesvirus (CFPHV), the most likely aetiological agent of fibropapillomatosis (FP) in sea turtles, was inferred, using dated sequences, through Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo analysis and used to estimate the virus evolutionary rate independent of the evolution of the host, and to resolve the phylogenetic positions of new haplotypes from Puerto Rico and the Gulf of Guinea. Four phylogeographical groups were identified: eastern Pacific, western Atlantic/eastern Caribbean, mid-west Pacific and Atlantic. The latter comprises the Gulf of Guinea and Puerto Rico, suggesting recent virus gene flow between these two regions. One virus haplotype from Florida remained elusive, representing either an independent lineage sharing a common ancestor with all other identified virus variants or an Atlantic representative of the lineage giving rise to the eastern Pacific group. The virus evolutionary rate ranged from 1.62×10⁻⁴to 2.22×10⁻⁴substitutions per site per year, which is much faster than what is expected for a herpesvirus. The mean time for the most recent common ancestor of the modern virus variants was estimated at 192.90–429.71 years ago, which, although more recent than previous estimates, still supports an interpretation that the global FP pandemic is not the result of a recent acquisition of a virulence mutation(s). The phylogeographical pattern obtained seems partially to reflect sea turtle movements, whereas altered environments appear to be implicated in current FP outbreaks and in the modern evolutionary history of CFPHV.