Abstract
Whipworms are soil-transmitted helminths that can infect a variety of animals. A Chinese serow possibly infected by whipworms was found during a wildlife disease surveillance project in Baima Snow Mountain National Nature Reserve, Yunnan, China, in 2021. As convergent evolution is common in coinhabiting parasites, a mitochondrial gene sequence (cox1) and ribosomal gene sequence (ITS1) were used to identify species similar to Trichuris from Chinese serow. The phylogenetic trees and genetic distances of ten Trichuris samples from a Chinese serow together with other Trichuris spp. that have been previously reported were analysed based on the cox1 and ITS1 sequences. The combined results of the phylogenetic tree and genetic distances based on cox1 gene showed that the whipworms in Chinese serow are T. skrjabini. However, the whipworms in the present study were divided into two apparent clades in the phylogenic trees constructed by the cox1 sequences (Clades A and B) and the ITS1 sequences (Clades C and D). In addition, the Fst and Nm values were 0.82 and 0.23 between Clade A and Clade B for the cox1 gene, and 0.30 and 0.45 between Clade C and Clade D for the ITS1 sequences; both indicators showed low gene flow among the clades. Therefore, the genetic population structure of T. skrjabini was illustrated.
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Acknowledgements
Thanks are especially due to Baima Snow Mountain National Nature Reserve, Yunnan, China, for providing the samples.
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This study was supported by the grants of Surveillance of Wildlife Diseases from the State Forestry Administration of China.
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LHT, HLC and ZJH conceived the project. MCZ, PP and XTZ designed the experiments. YXL, LH, DHC, HJL, PP and MCZ performed the experiments. MCZ and XTZ carried out the data analysis. MCZ, PP and ZJH wrote the manuscript.
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We declare that the Chinese serow in the current work were culled from the population by local Baima Snow Mountains government agents. There is no conflict of interest with species conservation guidelines. The collection of the worms from the Chinese serow was approved by the local Yunnan government agents. All experimental designs and animal handling were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of Northeast Forestry University.
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Zhou, M., Peng, P., Zhang, X. et al. First isolation of Trichuris from Chinese serow, Capricornis milneedwardsii (Cetartiodactyla: Caprinae). Parasitol Res 121, 1047–1051 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-022-07444-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-022-07444-4