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Detection of a novel Babesia sp. in Amblyomma javanense, an ectoparasite of Sunda pangolins
BACKGROUND: Babesia is a protozoal, tick-borne parasite that can cause life-threatening disease in humans, wildlife and domestic animals worldwide. However, in Southeast Asia, little is known about the prevalence and diversity of Babesia species present in wildlife and the tick vectors responsible f...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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BioMed Central
2023
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10664631/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37993967 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13071-023-06040-4 |
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author | Chong, Stacy Q. Y. Yeo, Darren Aidil, Nur Insyirah Ong, Jasmine L. Y. Chan, Amy H. J. Fernandez, Charlene Judith Lim, Bryan T. M. Khoo, Max D. Y. Wong, Anna M. S. Chang, Siow Foong Yap, Him Hoo |
author_facet | Chong, Stacy Q. Y. Yeo, Darren Aidil, Nur Insyirah Ong, Jasmine L. Y. Chan, Amy H. J. Fernandez, Charlene Judith Lim, Bryan T. M. Khoo, Max D. Y. Wong, Anna M. S. Chang, Siow Foong Yap, Him Hoo |
author_sort | Chong, Stacy Q. Y. |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Babesia is a protozoal, tick-borne parasite that can cause life-threatening disease in humans, wildlife and domestic animals worldwide. However, in Southeast Asia, little is known about the prevalence and diversity of Babesia species present in wildlife and the tick vectors responsible for its transmission. Recently, a novel Babesia species was reported in confiscated Sunda pangolins (Manis javanica) in Thailand. To investigate the presence of this parasite in Singapore, we conducted a molecular survey of Babesia spp. in free-roaming Sunda pangolins and their main ectoparasite, the Amblyomma javanense tick. METHODS: Ticks and tissue samples were opportunistically collected from live and dead Sunda pangolins and screened using a PCR assay targeting the 18S rRNA gene of Babesia spp. DNA barcoding of the cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) mitochondrial gene was used to confirm the species of ticks that were Babesia positive. RESULTS: A total of 296 ticks and 40 tissue samples were obtained from 21 Sunda pangolins throughout the 1-year study period. Babesia DNA was detected in five A. javanense ticks (minimum infection rate = 1.7%) and in nine different pangolins (52.9%) located across the country. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the Babesia 18S sequences obtained from these samples grouped into a single monophyletic clade together with those derived from Sunda pangolins in Thailand and that this evolutionarily distinct species is basal to the Babesia sensu stricto clade, which encompasses a range of Babesia species that infect both domestic and wildlife vertebrate hosts. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first report documenting the detection of a Babesia species in A. javanense ticks, the main ectoparasite of Sunda pangolins. While our results showed that A. javanense can carry this novel Babesia sp., additional confirmatory studies are required to demonstrate vector competency. Further studies are also necessary to investigate the role of other transmission pathways given the low infection rate of ticks in relation to the high infection rate of Sunda pangolins. Although it appears that this novel Babesia sp. is of little to no pathogenicity to Sunda pangolins, its potential to cause disease in other animals or humans cannot be ruled out. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT: [Image: see text] SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13071-023-06040-4. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-10664631 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-106646312023-11-22 Detection of a novel Babesia sp. in Amblyomma javanense, an ectoparasite of Sunda pangolins Chong, Stacy Q. Y. Yeo, Darren Aidil, Nur Insyirah Ong, Jasmine L. Y. Chan, Amy H. J. Fernandez, Charlene Judith Lim, Bryan T. M. Khoo, Max D. Y. Wong, Anna M. S. Chang, Siow Foong Yap, Him Hoo Parasit Vectors Brief Report BACKGROUND: Babesia is a protozoal, tick-borne parasite that can cause life-threatening disease in humans, wildlife and domestic animals worldwide. However, in Southeast Asia, little is known about the prevalence and diversity of Babesia species present in wildlife and the tick vectors responsible for its transmission. Recently, a novel Babesia species was reported in confiscated Sunda pangolins (Manis javanica) in Thailand. To investigate the presence of this parasite in Singapore, we conducted a molecular survey of Babesia spp. in free-roaming Sunda pangolins and their main ectoparasite, the Amblyomma javanense tick. METHODS: Ticks and tissue samples were opportunistically collected from live and dead Sunda pangolins and screened using a PCR assay targeting the 18S rRNA gene of Babesia spp. DNA barcoding of the cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) mitochondrial gene was used to confirm the species of ticks that were Babesia positive. RESULTS: A total of 296 ticks and 40 tissue samples were obtained from 21 Sunda pangolins throughout the 1-year study period. Babesia DNA was detected in five A. javanense ticks (minimum infection rate = 1.7%) and in nine different pangolins (52.9%) located across the country. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the Babesia 18S sequences obtained from these samples grouped into a single monophyletic clade together with those derived from Sunda pangolins in Thailand and that this evolutionarily distinct species is basal to the Babesia sensu stricto clade, which encompasses a range of Babesia species that infect both domestic and wildlife vertebrate hosts. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first report documenting the detection of a Babesia species in A. javanense ticks, the main ectoparasite of Sunda pangolins. While our results showed that A. javanense can carry this novel Babesia sp., additional confirmatory studies are required to demonstrate vector competency. Further studies are also necessary to investigate the role of other transmission pathways given the low infection rate of ticks in relation to the high infection rate of Sunda pangolins. Although it appears that this novel Babesia sp. is of little to no pathogenicity to Sunda pangolins, its potential to cause disease in other animals or humans cannot be ruled out. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT: [Image: see text] SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13071-023-06040-4. BioMed Central 2023-11-22 /pmc/articles/PMC10664631/ /pubmed/37993967 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13071-023-06040-4 Text en © The Author(s) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. |
spellingShingle | Brief Report Chong, Stacy Q. Y. Yeo, Darren Aidil, Nur Insyirah Ong, Jasmine L. Y. Chan, Amy H. J. Fernandez, Charlene Judith Lim, Bryan T. M. Khoo, Max D. Y. Wong, Anna M. S. Chang, Siow Foong Yap, Him Hoo Detection of a novel Babesia sp. in Amblyomma javanense, an ectoparasite of Sunda pangolins |
title | Detection of a novel Babesia sp. in Amblyomma javanense, an ectoparasite of Sunda pangolins |
title_full | Detection of a novel Babesia sp. in Amblyomma javanense, an ectoparasite of Sunda pangolins |
title_fullStr | Detection of a novel Babesia sp. in Amblyomma javanense, an ectoparasite of Sunda pangolins |
title_full_unstemmed | Detection of a novel Babesia sp. in Amblyomma javanense, an ectoparasite of Sunda pangolins |
title_short | Detection of a novel Babesia sp. in Amblyomma javanense, an ectoparasite of Sunda pangolins |
title_sort | detection of a novel babesia sp. in amblyomma javanense, an ectoparasite of sunda pangolins |
topic | Brief Report |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10664631/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37993967 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13071-023-06040-4 |
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