Faddy Helen (Orcid ID: 0000-0002-3446-8248) Viennet Elvina (Orcid ID: 0000-0002-1418-1426) No evidence for widespread Babesia microti transmission in Australia Helen M Faddy1,2, Kelly M Rooks1, Peter J Irwin3, Elvina Viennet1, Andrea Paparini3, Clive R Seed4, Susan L Stramer5, Robert J Harley6, Hiu-Tat Chan7, Peta M Dennington8, Robert LP Flower1 1Research and Development, Australian Red Cross Blood Service, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia 2School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia 3Murdoch University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia 4Clinical Services and Research, Australian Red Cross Blood Service, Perth, Western Australia, Australia 5American Red Cross Scientific Affairs, Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA 6Clinical Services and Research, Australian Red Cross Blood Service, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia 7Clinical Services and Research, Australian Red Cross Blood Service, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 8Clinical Services and Research, Australian Red Cross Blood Service, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Corresponding author: Helen Faddy; 44 Musk Avenue, Kelvin Grove, Queensland, Australia, 4059; TEL: +617 3838 9262 FAX: +617 3838 9428;
[email protected] Source of support: Australian governments fund the Australian Red Cross Blood Service to provide blood, blood products and services to the Australian community. Conflict of interest: All authors report no conflicts of interest. This is the author manuscript accepted for publication and has undergone full peer review but has not been through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process, which may lead to differences between this version and the Version of Record. Please cite this article as doi: 10.1111/trf.15336 This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. Running title: Babesia microti prevalence in Australia Word count (excluding abstract, references and illustrations): 3668 This article is protected by copyright.