Trichinella spiralis natural infection in Otaria flasvecens from Patagonia, Argentina

PASQUALETTI, M; FARIÑA, F; KRIVOKAPICH, S.; GATTI, G.M.; DANERI, G.; VARELA, E; LUCERO, S; ERCOLE, M; BESSI, C; WINTER, M.; RIBICICH, M.

Conferencia; 15th International Conference on Trichinellosis; 2019

In Argentina trichinellosis is an endemic disease representing animportant risk for human health due to its high rates of morbidity, mainlytransmitted by the consumption of raw or undercooked pork. Nevertheless,the discovery of new Trichinella species have led to a change in the study ofthe epidemiology of the disease with the addition of new sources of infection.Moreover, Trichinella infection has been detected in a wide range of marinemammals around the world. Until the present time, Trichinella spp. infectionhas not been detected in marine mammals of South America. Four SouthAmerican sea lions were found dead in the rookeries of Caleta de los Loros(Lat. 41° 00′ S; 64° 12′ W; n = 1), Promontorio Belén (Lat. 41° 09′ S; Long. 63°48′ O; n = 1) and Punta Bermeja (Lat. 41° 09′ S; Long. 63° 09′ O; n = 2) in RioNegro, Argentina. Muscle samples were taken from the tongue and diaphragmand were stored at 4 °C until examination at the Parasitology Laboratory ofthe Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias, Universidad de Buenos Aires. The totalmuscle samples from each animal were analyzed by artificial digestión.Identification at the species level was made by nested multiplex polymerase chain reaction (nested multiplex PCR) based on nuclear ribosomal DNAsequences, using six pair of primers. Trichinella spp. larvae were found in oneof the four South American sea lions. Based on their morphology, therecovered larvae were suggestive of Trichinella spp. Trichinella larvaegenerated a fragment of 173 bp corresponding to T. spiralis expansionsegment V (ESV) region of the ribosomal DNA.This is the first report of a Trichinella species infecting marinemammals from South America. The inclusion of Otaria flavescens in the widerange of Trichinella hosts adds new questions to the epidemiology ofTrichinella in marine animals.We thank the Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Desarrollo Sustentable(SAyDS) of Río Negro Province for giving us permission to get sample from therookeries.This work was supported by Universidad de Buenos Aires, Secretariade Ciencia y Técnica Subsidio UBACyT20020130100336BA and Ministerio deCiencia y Tecnología, FONCyT Subsidio PICT-2015-2350