Affiliation:
1. Shihezi University
2. Tumxuk Center for Disease Prevention and Control
3. Tarim University
4. NHC Key Laboratory of Prevention and Treatment of Central Asia High Incidence Diseases
Abstract
Abstract
To date, Piroplasma detection in wild rodents is still limited, especially in Asia. Here 218 liver samples, collected from 92 red-cheeked ground squirrels (RCGS, Spermophilus erythrogenys), 77 Libyan jirds (LJ, Meriones libycus), 48 long-tailed ground squirrels (LTGS, Spermophilus undulatus) and 1 Mongolian five-toed jerboa (MFTJ, Allactaga sibirica) were used to molecularly detect Piroplasma with 18S rRNA gene. The results showed that i) 1 RCGS (1.08%, 1/92), 3 LJs (3.89%, 3/77), 2 LTGSs (4.16%, 2/48) and 1 MFTJ (100%, 1/1) were positive to Piroplasma; ii) Babesia sequences detected in wild rodents had the highest similarity (94.01-96.17%) to Babesia vulpes (OK178567.1) found in camel (Camelus dromedarius) in Egypt; and iii) phylogenetic tree indicated that Babesia agents in RCGS, LJ, LTGS and MFTJ were clustered into a dependent clade. These findings suggest that new species or subspecies of Piroplasma members were found in wild rodents in northwestern China, although more molecular evidence should be supported.
Publisher
Research Square Platform LLC