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Survey of the Prosthogonimus spp. metacercariae infection in the second intermediate host dragonfly in Heilongjiang Province, China

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Abstract

Prosthogonimiasis poses a threat to the reproductive system of poultry and wild birds, which are the definitive hosts of the parasite causing this disease. However, the parasite infection of the second intermediate host (dragonfly), the primary vector of this pathogen, is rarely reported. In this study, the prevalence of Prosthogonimus infection in dragonflies was investigated from June 2019 to October 2022 in Heilongjiang Province, northeast China. The species of metacercariae isolated from dragonfly were identified by morphological characteristics, molecular biology techniques, and animal infection experiments. The results showed that 11 species of dragonflies and one damselfly were identified and among six of the dragonflies infected by Prosthogonimus metacercariae, Sympetrum depressiusculum (28.53%) had the highest infection rate among all positive dragonflies, followed by Sympetrum vulgatum (27.86%) and Sympetrum frequens (20.99%), which are preferred hosts, and the total prevalence was 20.39% (2061/10,110) in Heilongjiang Province. Three species of Prosthogoniumus metacercariae were isolated, including Prosthogonimus cuneatus, Prosthogonimus pullucidus, and Prosthogonimus sp., among which P. cuneatus was the dominant species in dragonflies in Heilongjiang Province. This is the first report on the prevalence of Prosthogonimus in dragonflies in China, which provides baseline data for the control of prosthogonimiasis in Heilongjiang Province and a reference for the prevention of prosthogonimiasis in other areas of China.

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Data supporting the conclusions of this article are included within the article and its additional files.

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31972703, 32172886) and Natural Science Foundation of Heilongjiang Province (ZD2022C006).

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Ben Li: Data analysis, Writing – original draft, Software, Writing – review & editing. Zhuo Lan: Data analysis, Software. Xin-Ru Guo: Data analysis, Methodology. Ai-Hui Zhang: Samples collection. Wei Wei: Samples collection. Zhen-Hua Jin: Samples collection. Zhong-Yan Gao: Samples collection. Xian-Guang Zhang: Samples collection. Bai Li: Samples collection. Jun-Feng Gao: Samples collection. Chun-Ren Wang: Writing – review & editing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Chun-Ren Wang.

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This study was approved by the Animal Ethics Committee of Heilongjiang Bayi Agricultural University (Approval No. HBAU2018-007).

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Li, B., Lan, Z., Guo, XR. et al. Survey of the Prosthogonimus spp. metacercariae infection in the second intermediate host dragonfly in Heilongjiang Province, China. Parasitol Res 122, 2859–2870 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-023-07975-4

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