Abstract
Recently, we reported the in vitro growth inhibitory effects of the imidazole derivatives, clotrimazole (CLT) and ketoconazole (KC), and the herbicide, clodinafop-propargy1 (CP), against bovine and equine Babesia parasites. Additionally, in the bovine species, several combined applications of the CLT, KC, and CP were reported to significantly increase the inhibitory effects. In this study, similar combination tests were carried out in order to confirm possible synergistic effects in the equine species, Babesia caballi and Babesia equi. Combinations of CLT/KC, CLT/CP, and CLT/KC/CP exerted a significantly enhanced growth inhibitory efficacy in B. caballi, in contrast to B. equi, where no synergistic effects were observed in any of the combinations. Our results suggest that the combined usage of these drugs may have a high enough potential to be considered applicable in practice.
