¹Department of Parasitology, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, PAKISTAN
²Institute of Microbiology, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, PAKISTAN
³Department of Pathobiology and Biomedical Sciences, MNS University of Agriculture, Multan, PAKISTAN DOI : 10.9775/kvfd.2026.37391 Bovine babesiosis, caused primarily by the tick-borne apicomplexans Babesia bovis and Babesia bigemina, remains one of the most economically important haemoparasitic diseases affecting cattle in tropical and subtropical regions. Conventional control strategies, including acaricides, chemotherapy, and live blood-derived vaccines, are limited by resistance, chemical residues, cold-chain requirements, and incomplete strain protection, prompting interest in host genetic resistance as a sustainable complement. Indicine (Bos indicus) cattle, and some taurine breeds, exhibit heritable variation in resistance to both Babesia infection and its Rhipicephalus tick vector. This review integrates current knowledge of the immunological basis of resistance with advances in quantitative and functional genomics and their applications in breeding. We examine disease pathobiology, innate and adaptive immune mechanisms, breed-associated and within-breed variation, and the genetic architecture of resistance revealed through heritability estimates, bovine leukocyte antigen and immune-related genes, quantitative trait loci, genome-wide association studies, and selection signatures. Throughout, we distinguish direct evidence (Babesia infection measured) from indirect evidence (tick burden, general immune response, or tropical adaptation). We conclude that resistance is polygenic and environmentally influenced. Direct genomic evidence for Babesia resistance remains limited; most mapped loci derive from tick-count phenotypes. Keywords : Bovine babesiosis, Babesia bovis, Genomic selection, Host genetic resistance, Rhipicephalus microplus, Sustainable disease control