| Sumario: |
A serum bank created by the National Brucellosis Control Program during 1991 con sisted of approximately 4000 sera collected from farms in each of the seven provinces in
Costa Rica. Sera were used to determine the prevalence of antibodies directed against An aplasma marginale, Babesia bigemina and Babesia bovis in Costa Rica and to study some
geographical, ecological and management factors which could influence the epidemiology
of the infection. The overall seroprevalence in bovines was 72.4%, 55.4% and 54.1% forA.
marginale, B. bigemina and B. bovis, respectively. The Moran's index or spatial autocor relation coefficient, which tests the significance of geographical patterns in disease distri bution, indicated two foci of seropositivity in the country for B. bovis: one located mainly
in the dry tropical forest and the other located in the tropical moist forest. Suggested foci
were corroborated by a risk assessment using the random effects models.
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