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Mitochondrial haplotypes of Aelurostrongylus abstrusus and Troglostrongylus brevior (Nematoda, Metastrongyloidea) from domestic and wild felids

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Abstract

The lungworm Aelurostrongylus abstrusus is the most important respiratory parasite of domestic cats. Pulmonary aelurostrongylosis has been reported in wild felids, though unequivocally evidence of wildlife infection by A. abstrusus is scant. Recently, Troglostrongylus brevior, a lungworm usually infecting wild felids, has been described in domestic cats from Mediterranean areas. The present work evaluates the sequence variation of an informative region within the gene encoding the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 of A. abstrusus and T. brevior, in order to provide novel information on the genetic make-up of these lungworms. Parasitic stages of A. abstrusus and T. brevior were collected from domestic and wild hosts (i.e., domestic cat, European wildcat, caracal, serval, and lion) from Italy, Greece, and South Africa. Five (HI-HV) and four (HI-HIV) haplotypes were recorded for A. abstrusus and T. brevior, respectively, mostly shared between domestic and wild felids in different geographical areas. The phylogenetic analysis showed that all haplotypes of A. abstrusus and T. brevior clustered as monophyletic groups with a strong nodal support, indicating that all haplotypes identified were distinct from each other. All sequence types represent two distinct species, A. abstrusus and T. brevior, and these genetic convergences are also detected within and among populations of these nematodes, irrespective of their hosts and geographical origin. The occurrence of A. abstrusus and T. brevior haplotypes in different hosts from the same regions and between different countries indicates that the same lungworm populations circulate in domestic and wild hosts under the same routes of transmission.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Dr. Alessia Menegotto (Conservation Global Agency for environmental gain npc, South Africa) and Francesca Laiacona (Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of Teramo, Italy) for collaborating in collecting samples from wild felids from South Africa (specimens from Caracal caracal, Leptailurus serval, and Panthera leo; Table 1) and to Dr. Paola Beraldo (University of Padua, Italy) to provide sample 18 of T. brevior from Wild Cat n. 11 (Table 1).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Teramo, Località Piano D’Accio, snc, Teramo, Italy

    Donato Traversa, Raffaella Iorio & Angela Di Cesare

  2. Department of Veterinary Medicine of Perugia, Via San Costanzo 4, 06126, Perugia, Italy

    Fabrizia Veronesi

  3. School of Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Anastasia Diakou

  4. Department of Animal Medicine, Production and Health, University of Padua, Viale dell’Università 16, Legnaro, Padua, Italy

    Giulia Simonato & Federica Marcer

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  1. Donato Traversa
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  2. Fabrizia Veronesi
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  3. Anastasia Diakou
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  4. Raffaella Iorio
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  5. Giulia Simonato
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  6. Federica Marcer
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  7. Angela Di Cesare
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Correspondence to Donato Traversa.

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Ethical statement

Procedures applied to collect parasitic stages analyzed in the present study are not within the context of EU legislation for animal experimentations. Samples were collected by veterinarians and caused no suffering to the animals. All applicable international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care of animals were followed. This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.

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Traversa, D., Veronesi, F., Diakou, A. et al. Mitochondrial haplotypes of Aelurostrongylus abstrusus and Troglostrongylus brevior (Nematoda, Metastrongyloidea) from domestic and wild felids. Parasitol Res 116, 1227–1235 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-017-5399-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-017-5399-9

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