title: Prevalence of Dirofilaria immitis infection in stray cats by nested PCR in Korea.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to conduct a survey of Dirofilaria immitis infection among stray cats in Korea using nested PCR. We included 235 stray cats (121 females and 114 males) and evaluated each for the presence of feline heartworm infection. Blood samples were collected from 135 cats in Daejeon, 50 cats in Seoul, and 50 cats from Gyeonggi-do (Province). Of the 235 DNA samples, 14 (6.0%) were positive for D. immitis. The prevalence of infection in male cats (8/114, 7.0%) tended to be higher than that in female cats (6/121, 5.0%), but the difference was not statistically significant. In each location, 8, 2, and 4 cats were positive for infection, respectively, based on DNA testing. No significant differences in the prevalence were observed among the geographic regions, although the rate of infection was higher in Gyeonggi-do (8.0%) than Daejeon (5.9%) and Seoul (4.0%). We submitted 7 of the 14 D. immitis DNA-positive samples for sequencing analysis. All samples corresponded to partial D. immitis cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene sequences with 99% homology to the D. immitis sequence deposited in GenBank (accession no. FN391553). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first survey using nested PCR to analyze the prevalence of D. immitis in stray cats in Korea.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Veterinary Internal Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 305-764, Korea.
authors.forename: Hyung-Jin
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: Division of Malaria & Parasitic Diseases, Korea National Institute of Health, Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Osong-eup, Cheongwon-gun, Chungbuk 363-951, Korea.
authors.forename: Sang-Eun
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Division of Malaria & Parasitic Diseases, Korea National Institute of Health, Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Osong-eup, Cheongwon-gun, Chungbuk 363-951, Korea.
authors.forename: Won-Ja
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Statistics, Chung-Ang University, Seoul 156-756, Korea.
authors.forename: Jung-Hyun
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Oh
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Veterinary Infectious Disease, College of Veterinary Medicine, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 305-764, Korea.
authors.forename: Easwaran
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Maheswaran
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Veterinary Internal Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 305-764, Korea.
authors.forename: Kyoung-Won
authors.initials: KW
authors.lastname: Seo
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Veterinary Internal Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 305-764, Korea.
authors.forename: Kun-Ho
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Song
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001769:Blood / Q000469:parasitology; D002371:Cat Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000469:parasitology*; D002415:Cats; D018509:DNA, Helminth / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D004183:Dirofilaria immitis / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D004184:Dirofilariasis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000469:parasitology*; D003576:Electron Transport Complex IV / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D007723:Korea / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D015995:Prevalence; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017385:Sequence Homology
chemical_list: D018509:DNA, Helminth; D003576:Electron Transport Complex IV
keywords: Dirofilaria immitis; nested PCR; prevalence; stray cat