title: Genetic Identification of Spirometra decipiens Plerocercoids in Terrestrial Snakes from Korea and China.
abstract: Human sparganosis is a zoonotic disease caused by infection with larval forms (procercoid/plerocercoid) of Spirometra spp. The purpose of this study was to identify Spirometra spp. of infected snakes using a multiplex PCR assay and phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial DNA sequence data from the spargana of terrestrial snakes obtained from Korea and China. A total of 283 snakes were obtained that included 4 species of Colubridae comprising Rhabdophis tigrinus tigrinus (n=150), Dinodon rufozonatum rufozonatum (n=64), Elaphe davidi (n=2), and Elaphe schrenkii (n=7), and 1 species of Viperidae, Agkistrodon saxatilis (n=60). The snakes were collected from the provinces of Chungbuk, Chungnam, and Gyeongbuk in Korea (n=161), and from China (n=122). The overall infection rate with spargana was 83% (235/283). The highest was recorded for D. rufozonatum rufozonatum (100%), followed by A. saxatilis (85%) and R. tigrinus tigrinus (80%), with a negative result for E. davidi (0%) and E. schrenkii (0%). The sequence identities between the spargana from snakes (n=50) and Spirometra erinaceieuropaei (KJ599680) or S. decipiens (KJ599679) control specimens were 90.8% and 99.2%, respectively. Pairwise genetic distances between spargana (n=50) and S. decipiens ranged from 0.0080 to 0.0107, while those between spargana and S. erinaceieuropaei ranged from 0.1070 to 0.1096. In this study, all of the 904 spargana analyzed were identified as S. decipiens either by a multiplex PCR assay (n=854) or mitochondrial cox1 sequence analysis (n=50).
authors.affiliation: Department of Parasitology, Medical Research Institute and Parasite Resource Bank, Chungbuk National University School of Medicine, Cheongju 28644, Korea.
authors.forename: Hyeong-Kyu
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Jeon
authors.affiliation: Department of Parasitology, Medical Research Institute and Parasite Resource Bank, Chungbuk National University School of Medicine, Cheongju 28644, Korea.
authors.forename: Hansol
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: Department of Parasitology, Medical Research Institute and Parasite Resource Bank, Chungbuk National University School of Medicine, Cheongju 28644, Korea.
authors.forename: Dongmin
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Parasitology, Medical Research Institute and Parasite Resource Bank, Chungbuk National University School of Medicine, Cheongju 28644, Korea.
authors.forename: Seongjun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Choe
authors.affiliation: Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, Cheongju 28159, Korea.
authors.forename: Kyu-Heon
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Parasitology and Tropical Medicine, Institute of Health Sciences, Gyeongsang National University College of Medicine, Jinju 52727, Korea.
authors.forename: Woon-Mok
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Sohn
authors.affiliation: Department of Parasitology, Medical Research Institute and Parasite Resource Bank, Chungbuk National University School of Medicine, Cheongju 28644, Korea.
authors.forename: Keeseon S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Eom
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002590:Cestode Infections / Q000469:parasitology / Q000662:veterinary*; D002681:China; D017812:Colubridae / Q000469:parasitology*; D051545:Cyclooxygenase 1 / Q000235:genetics*; D018509:DNA, Helminth / Q000235:genetics; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics*; D060885:Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction; D010802:Phylogeny; D056910:Republic of Korea; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013146:Spirometra / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D017819:Viperidae / Q000469:parasitology*
chemical_list: D018509:DNA, Helminth; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial; D051545:Cyclooxygenase 1
keywords: China; Korea; Spirometra decipiens; mitochondrial cox1 gene; plerocercoid; sparganum; terrestrial snake