From blood collected from 94 cattle at 12 locations in the eastern and northeastern areas of Zimbabwe, DNA was extracted and analysed by polymerase chain reaction with primers previously reported to be specific for <em>Babesia bigemina</em> and <em>Babesia bovis</em>. Overall, DNA of <em>Babesia bigemina</em> was detected in the blood of 33/94 (35 %) cattle and DNA from <em>B. bovis</em> was detected in 27/58 (47 %) of cattle. The prevalence of DNA of <em>B. bigemina</em> was significantly higher in young animals (&lt;2 years) (23/46) than in animals over 2 years of age (10/48; (chi)2 = 8.77; P &lt; 0.01 %). Although tick sampling was not thorough, <em>Boophilus decoloratus</em> could be collected at 7/9 sites sampled and <em>Boophilus microplus</em> at 4/9 sites. Of the 20 <em>B. decoloratus</em> allowed to oviposit before PCR analysis, 1 (5 %) contained DNA that could be amplified with primers for <em>B. bigemina</em> while 12 (60 %) were positive with primers for <em>B. bovis</em>. Of the <em>B. microplus</em> allowed to oviposit, 11/16 (69 %) were positive for <em>B. bovis</em> DNAby PCR and 2/16 (12 %) were positive for <em>B. bigemina</em>