Phylogenetic characterization of Babesia canis vogeli in dogs in the state of Goiás, Brazil

Abstract

The genus Babesia comprises protozoa that cause diseases known as babesiosis. Dogs are commonly affected by Babesia canis or Babesia gibsoni. Babesia canis is divided into the subspecies Babesia canis canis, Babesia canis vogeli and Babesia canis rossi. Among these, Babesia canis vogeli predominates in Brazil. The objective of this study was to conduct a phylogenetic analysis on Babesia isolates from dogs in Goiânia, Goiás. Blood samples were obtained from 890 dogs presenting clinical signs suggestive of canine babesiosis that were attended at a veterinary hospital of Goiás. Only samples presenting typical intraerythrocytic parasites were used in the study. These were subjected to DNA extraction and amplification of a fragment of the 18S rRNA, by means of PCR. The PCR products were purified and sequenced. Sequences were obtained from 35 samples but only 17 of these were kept after quality assessment. Similarity analysis using BLASTn demonstrated that all 17 sequences corresponded to B. canis vogeli. Analysis using the Mega4 software showed that the isolates of B. canis vogeli from dogs in Goiânia present a high degree of molecular similarity (99.2 to 100%) in comparison with other reference isolates from other regions of Brazil and worldwide, deposited in GenBank.Keywords: Babesia canis vogeli, canine babesiosis, molecular characterization, phylogeny. Resumo

Molecular characterization of Babesia vogeli in dogs from Belém, northern Brazil

“…The present study is, to the best of our knowledge, the first time that the molecular analysis of a large fragment of 18S rDNA gene sequence of B. vogeli from Belém has been conducted. Our results, i.e., the sequence alignments and phylogenetic tree, confirm those of previous studies (Passos et al, 2005;Duarte et al, 2011), which suggest, based on the 18S rDNA sequences, that there is low genetic diversity among B. vogeli strains in Brazil.…”

“…It is noteworthy that the genotype obtained here was the fourth-largest 18S rRNA gene fragment of B. vogeli ever obtained in Brazil. Duarte et al (2011), based on a short B. vogeli 18S rDNA gene fragment from Goiânia, Goiás (mid-west Brazil), identified two genotypes: GO 1 and GO 4, which differed by one substitution (A to G) at position 128 of their alignment. GO 1 was 100% identical to three sequences from Minas Gerais, Brazil, as well as to the sequences from Belém obtained in the present study.…”

“…In Brazil, canine babesiosis is typically caused by B. vogeli, which is known to occur in the south (Trapp et al, 2006;Jojima et al, 2008;Vieira et al, 2013), southeast (Dell-Porto et al, 1990, 1993Spiewak, 1992;O'Dwyer, 2000;Costa-Junior et al, 2009;Lemos et al, 2012), midwest (Souza et al, 2004;Duarte et al, 2011;Spolidorio et al, 2011), north-east (Carlos et al, 2006;Lima et al, 2006;Ramos et al, 2010;Silva et al, 2012), and north (Spolidorio et al, 2013;Moraes et al, 2014). In addition, there have been some reports of B. gibsoni from the south of the country (Trapp et al, 2006;Jojima et al, 2008).…”

Babesia spp. and Ehrlichia chaffeensis infection in Dogs from Southeastern Bahia, Brazil

“…The underdetection of babesiosis from blood smears (0.5%) was inferior to the lowest prevalences found in Brazil, which are described in previous studies [7,15,33], which found the presence of Babesia merozoites in 2.2%, 3.9%, and 3.3%, respectively. Low infection prevalence in the cytologic analysis associated with high seroprevalence, as in this study, are characteristics of chronic or subclinical infections [3].…”

“…In order to amplify the rRNA 18S gene of Babesia spp., we used primers Bab7 (5'-GGC TAC CAC ATC TAA GGA AG-3') and Bab9 (3'-CTA AGA ATT TCA CCT CTG ACA G-5') [15], which amplify a fragment with 490 base pairs.…”