Crustacean-borne infections with microphallid metacercariae (Digenea: Microphallidae) from focal areas in Meghalaya, north-east India

Abstract

AbstractDuring a survey of edible Crustacea for recovery of infective stages (metacercariae) of potential helminthozoonoses of trematode origin in north-east India, the crab speciesBarytelphusa lugubris mansoniana,collected from suspected foci of lungfluke infection in Meghalaya and Assam, was found to harbour metacercarial cysts that were different from the earlier reported infection, in which the lungflukeParagonimuswas confirmed to be implicated. Using morphological criteria, this metacercaria was identified asMicrophallus indicusMukherjee & Ghosh, 1967 of the trematode family Microphallidae. The present study extends the previous work by providing molecular characterization of this parasite using ribosomal internal transcribed spacer regions (rDNA ITS1 and ITS2) and the partial large ribosomal subunit DNA, lsr. These target regions were amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using trematode universal primers and sequenced. In BLAST analysis the query sequences were found close to members of Microphallidae and closest to the genusMicrophallus.