Krige Anna-Sheree, Thompson R C Andrew, Seidlitz Anke, Keatley Sarah, Wayne Julia, Clode Peta L
UWA School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia.
School of Veterinary and Life Sciences, Murdoch University, 90 South Street, Murdoch, WA 6150, Australia.
Pathogens. 2021 Aug 16;10(8):1037. doi: 10.3390/pathogens10081037.
A growing number of indigenous trypanosomes have been reported to naturally infect a variety of Australian wildlife with some species of implicated in the population decline of critically endangered marsupials. However, the mode of transmission of Australian trypanosomes is unknown since their vectors remain unidentified. Here we aimed to fill this current knowledge gap about the occurrence and identity of indigenous trypanosomes in Australian invertebrates by conducting molecular screening for the presence of spp. in native ticks collected from south-west Australia. A total of 231 ticks (148 collected from vegetation and 83 retrieved directly from 76 marsupial hosts) were screened for using a High-Resolution Melt (HRM) qPCR assay. An overall qPCR positivity of 37% (46/125) and 34% (26/76) was detected in questing ticks and host-collected (i.e., feeding) ticks, respectively. Of these, sequencing revealed 28% (35/125) of questing and 28% (21/76) of feeding ticks were infected with one or more of the five species of trypanosome previously reported in this region ( sp. ANU2). This work has confirmed that Australian ticks are capable of harbouring several species of indigenous trypanosome and likely serve as their vectors.
据报道，越来越多的本地锥虫能自然感染多种澳大利亚野生动物，其中一些物种与极度濒危有袋动物的数量减少有关。然而，由于澳大利亚锥虫的传播媒介尚未确定，其传播方式也未知。在这里，我们旨在通过对从澳大利亚西南部采集的本地蜱虫进行分子筛查，以检测锥虫属物种的存在，从而填补目前关于澳大利亚无脊椎动物中本地锥虫的发生情况和身份的知识空白。使用高分辨率熔解（HRM）定量聚合酶链反应（qPCR）检测法，对总共231只蜱虫（148只从植被中采集，83只直接从76只袋类动物宿主身上获取）进行了锥虫属检测。在搜寻到的蜱虫和从宿主身上采集（即正在吸血）的蜱虫中，qPCR总体阳性率分别为37%（46/125）和34%（26/76）。其中，测序显示，在搜寻到的蜱虫中有28%（35/125），在吸血蜱虫中有28%（21/76）感染了该地区先前报道的五种锥虫中的一种或多种（锥虫属ANU2种）。这项研究证实，澳大利亚蜱虫能够携带多种本地锥虫物种，并可能充当其传播媒介。
