High prevalence of Trypanosoma vegrandis in bats from Western Australia

Jill M Austen; Mark O'Dea; Bethany Jackson; Una Ryan

doi:10.1016/j.vetpar.2015.10.016

High prevalence of Trypanosoma vegrandis in bats from Western Australia

Vet Parasitol. 2015 Dec 15;214(3-4):342-7. doi: 10.1016/j.vetpar.2015.10.016. Epub 2015 Oct 20.

Authors

Jill M Austen¹, Mark O'Dea¹, Bethany Jackson¹, Una Ryan²

Affiliations

¹ School of Veterinary and Life Sciences, Murdoch University, South Street, Murdoch, Western Australia 6150, Australia.
² School of Veterinary and Life Sciences, Murdoch University, South Street, Murdoch, Western Australia 6150, Australia. Electronic address: Una.Ryan@murdoch.edu.au.

Abstract

The present study describes the first report of Trypanosoma vegrandis in bats using morphology and sequence analysis of the 18S rRNA gene. The PCR prevalence of T. vegrandis in bats was 81.8% (18/22). The high prevalence of T. vegrandis in the present study suggests that bats may play an important role in the epidemiology of T. vegrandis in Australia. T. vegrandis appears to be geographically dispersed, has a wide distribution in Australia and low levels of host specificity.

Keywords: 18S rRNA; Bats; T. vegrandis; Trypanosome.

MeSH terms

Animals
Chiroptera / parasitology*
DNA, Protozoan / genetics
Host Specificity
Molecular Sequence Data
Phylogeny
Prevalence
RNA, Ribosomal, 18S / genetics
Trypanosoma* / cytology
Trypanosoma* / genetics
Trypanosomiasis / epidemiology*
Trypanosomiasis / parasitology*
Western Australia

Substances

DNA, Protozoan
RNA, Ribosomal, 18S