Background: Cystic or alveolar echinococcosis caused by the larval stages of Echinococcus spp. is a very severe zoonotic helminth infection. Echinococcus shiquicus is a newly discovered species that has only been reported in the Qinghai and Sichuan provinces of the Qinghai-Tibet plateau, China where, to date, it has only been confirmed in Tibetan foxes and wild small mammal populations of the Tibetan plateau. Information on its genetic and evolutionary diversity is scanty. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of E. shiquicus in plateau pikas (Ochotona curzoniae), a known intermediate host, and to determine the genetic variation and phylogenetic relationship of the E. shiquicus population in the Tibet region of China based on mitochondrial DNA.
Methods: Echinococcus shiquicus samples were collected from Damxung and Nyêmo counties (located in Tibet Autonomous Region, China). The mitochondrial cox1 and nad1 gene sequences were analyzed, and the genetic diversity and epidemiology of E. shiquicus in the region were discussed based on the results.
Results: The prevalence of E. shiquicus in pikas in Damxung and Nyêmo counties was 3.95% (6/152) and 6.98% (9/129), respectively. In combination with previous public sequence data, the haplotype analysis revealed 12 haplotypes (H) characterized by two distinct clusters (I and II), and a sequence distance of 99.1-99.9% from the reference haplotype (H1). The diversity and neutrality indices for the entire E. shiquicus populations were: haplotype diversity (Hd) ± standard deviation (SD) 0.862 ± 0.035; nucleotide diversity (Hd ± SD) 0.0056 ± 0.0003; Tajima's D 0.876 (P > 0.05); and Fu's F 6.000 (P > 0.05).
Conclusions: This was the first analysis of the newly discovered E. shiquicus in plateau pikas in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. The neutrality indices suggest a deficiency of alleles, indicative of a recent population bottleneck.
Keywords: Echinococcus shiquicus; Epidemiology; Genetic diversity; Tibet region.