Department of Parasitology and Parasitic Disease and Animal Biology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of Bucharest, University of Agronomical Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, Spl. Independentei 105, sector 5, 050097, Bucharest, Romania.
Parasitol Res. 2012 May;110(5):1659-64. doi: 10.1007/s00436-011-2683-y. Epub 2011 Oct 18.
Canine babesiosis is a tick-borne disease caused by the protozoa Babesia spp. that affects dogs worldwide. In Romania, canine babesiosis has become quite frequent in the last few years, with a wide variety of clinical signs, ranging from mild, nonspecific illness to peracute collapse, and even death. Traditionally, a Babesia infection in dogs is diagnosed based on the morphologic appearance of the intraerythrocytic piroplasms observed in peripheral blood smears. To date, no data on genetic characterization of Babesia species in dogs has been documented for Romania. Therefore, a molecular survey on natural Babesia infections of dogs in Romania using polymerase chain reaction and genetic sequence analysis of a fragment of the ssRNA gene was performed. A total number of 16 blood samples were tested for the presence of Babesia DNA. Blood samples were collected from 11 dogs with symptoms of babesiosis and microscopically proven positive for Babesia and from a group of five asymptomatic dogs, not tested microscopically for Babesia, which were included in the study for comparative analysis. The piroplasm-specific PCR amplifying the partial 18S rRNA gene confirmed Babesia spp. infection in all 11 samples from dogs with clinical babesiosis, and in one of the clinically normal dogs. Sequence analysis revealed the presence of Babesia canis in all clinically affected dogs and Babesia vogeli in one clinically normal dog. This is the first molecular evidence of B. canis and B. vogeli in dogs from Romania. The results of the study provide basic information toward a better understanding of the epidemiology of canine babesiosis in Romania and will help to promote an effective control program.
犬巴贝斯虫病是一种由巴贝斯原虫引起的蜱传疾病，影响全球的犬只。在罗马尼亚，犬巴贝斯虫病在过去几年变得相当频繁，具有广泛的临床症状，从轻度、非特异性疾病到急性崩溃，甚至死亡。传统上，犬巴贝斯虫感染是基于外周血涂片观察到的红细胞内梨浆体的形态外观来诊断的。迄今为止，罗马尼亚尚未记录有关犬巴贝斯虫种的遗传特征的数据。因此，使用聚合酶链反应和 ssRNA 基因片段的遗传序列分析对罗马尼亚自然感染的犬巴贝斯虫进行了分子调查。总共测试了 16 份血液样本，以检测巴贝斯虫 DNA 的存在。从 11 只患有巴贝斯虫病症状且显微镜检查证实为巴贝斯虫阳性的犬和一组 5 只未进行显微镜检查的无症状犬中采集了血液样本，这些犬被纳入研究进行比较分析。针对部分 18S rRNA 基因的焦虫特异性 PCR 扩增证实了所有 11 份来自临床巴贝斯虫病犬的样本以及 1 份临床正常犬的巴贝斯虫感染。序列分析显示，所有临床受影响的犬都存在犬巴贝斯虫，而 1 只临床正常的犬存在巴贝斯虫 vogeli。这是罗马尼亚首例犬巴贝斯虫和巴贝斯虫 vogeli 的分子证据。该研究的结果为更好地了解罗马尼亚犬巴贝斯虫病的流行病学提供了基本信息，并将有助于促进有效的控制计划。
