Occurrence of Leishmania sp. in cutaneous lesions of horses in Central Europe.
The present report describes a novel etiological agent of cutaneous leishmaniasis in horses that, at least for some cases, sporadically appeared as autochthonous infections in geographically distant regions of Germany and Switzerland. The infection was initially diagnosed upon clinical and immunohistological findings. Subsequent comparative sequence analysis of diagnostic PCR products from the internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS1) of ssrRNA classified the respective isolates as neither Old World nor New World Leishmania species. However, four isolates subjected to molecular analyses all exhibited a close phylogenetic relationship to Leishmania sp. siamensis, an organism recently identified in a visceral leishmaniasis patient from Thailand. Future investigations will demonstrate if this form of leishmaniasis represents an emerging, and perhaps zoonotic, disease of European, or even global, importance.
Institute of Parasitology, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Berne, Länggass-Str. 122, CH-3012 Berne, Switzerland. nmueller@ipa.unibe.ch
Norbert
N
Müller
Monika
M
Welle
Lisbeth
L
Lobsiger
Michael H
MH
Stoffel
Kathrin Kühni
KK
Boghenbor
Monika
M
Hilbe
Bruno
B
Gottstein
Caroline F
CF
Frey
Claudia
C
Geyer
Wolf
W
von Bomhard
D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D005060:Europe / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006734:Horse Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000469:parasitology; D006736:Horses; D007891:Leishmania / Q000145:classification / Q000502:physiology*; D007896:Leishmaniasis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000469:parasitology / Q000662:veterinary*; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D012876:Skin Diseases, Parasitic / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000469:parasitology / Q000662:veterinary*