Morphology
Babesia enters erythrocytes at the sporozoite stage. Within the red blood cell, the protozoa become cyclical and develop into a trophozoite ring. The trophozoites moult into merozoites, which have a tetrad structure coined a Maltese-cross form. The tetrad morphology, which can be seen with Giemsa staining of a thin blood smear, is unique to Babesia, and serves as a distinguishing feature from Plasmodium falciparum, a protozoan of similar morphology that causes malaria. Trophozoite and merozoite growth ruptures the host erythrocyte, leading to the release of vermicules, the infectious parasitic bodies, which rapidly spread the protozoa throughout the blood.
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