Patent and pre-patent detection of Echinococcus granulosus genotypes in the definitive host.

NAIDICH, A.; MCMANUS, D.; CANOVA, S.; GUTIERREZ, A.; ZHANG, W.; GUARNERA, E.; MARA CECILIA ROSENZVIT

MOLECULAR AND CELLULAR PROBES

Elsevier

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2006 vol. 20 p. 5 - 10

0890-8508

The detection of Echinococcus granulosus in dogs is important forepidemiological surveillance and evaluation of cystic hydatic disease controlprograms. We report the efficacy of two PCR-based methods to detect patent andpre-patent infection in dogs experimentally infected with E. granulosus. Thedetection is based on amplification of a fragment of a mitochondrial gene(Mit-PCR) and a DNA repetitive element (Rep-PCR) of E. granulosus. We tested theability of both methods to detect several genotypes of the parasite. Both PCRmethods could detect E. granulosus in pre-patent and patent periods, even whenmicroscopical observation of eggs resulted negative in fecal samples. TheMit-PCR produced the same amplification pattern for all the parasite genotypestested while the amplification patterns with the Rep-PCR differed among groupsof strains. Fecal samples collected from dogs of an endemic area were diagnosedwith more sensitivity than arecoline hydrobromide purgation. These molecularmethods could be applied in the confirmation of coproantigen-positive fecalsamples and to verify the success of control programs.