Molecular diagnosis of equid summer sores.
Equine cutaneous habronemosis, also known as "summer sores", is a parasitic infection caused by larvae of Habronema microstoma and Habronema muscae (Nematoda, Spirurida) released by dung-inhabiting fly vectors on abraded skin, skin wounds or muco-cutaneous transition sites. Larvae induce a local inflammatory reaction characterised by itching, granulomatous, ulcerated and, often non-healing, lesions. The diagnosis of summer sores may be unreliable mainly because of the limits of clinical and microscopic examination. The applicability of a semi-nested PCR assay developed for the diagnosis of gastric habronemosis has been herein demonstrated for the detection of the cutaneous infection. The potential applicability of this diagnostic tool may have for clinical and epidemiological studies of cutaneous habronemosis in equids is discussed.
Traversa
Donato
D
Department of Comparative Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Teramo, Piazza Aldo Moro 45, 64100 Teramo, Italy. dtraversa@unite.it
Iorio
Raffaella
R
Petrizzi
Lucio
L
De Amicis
Ippolito
I
Brandt
Sabine
S
Meana
Aranzazu
A
Giangaspero
Annunziata
A
Otranto
Domenico
D
D000818:Animals; D018397:Equidae; D006734:Horse Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000469:parasitology; D006736:Horses; D008297:Male; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000662:veterinary*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012876:Skin Diseases, Parasitic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000469:parasitology*; D017205:Spirurida Infections / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000662:veterinary*; D013151:Spiruroidea / Q000302:isolation & purification*