First molecular detection of Babesia spp. in 4 species of wild rodents in northwestern China

Abstract

To date, Piroplasma detection in wild rodents is still limited, especially in Asia. Here 218 liver samples, collected from 92 red-cheeked ground squirrels (RCGS, Spermophilus erythrogenys), 77 Libyan jirds (LJ, Meriones libycus), 48 long-tailed ground squirrels (LTGS, Spermophilus undulatus) and 1 Mongolian five-toed jerboa (MFTJ, Allactaga sibirica) were used to molecularly detect Piroplasma with 18S rRNA gene. The results showed that i) 1 RCGS (1.08%, 1/92), 3 LJs (3.89%, 3/77), 2 LTGSs (4.16%, 2/48) and 1 MFTJ (100%, 1/1) were positive to Piroplasma; ii) Babesia sequences detected in wild rodents had the highest similarity (94.01-96.17%) to Babesia vulpes (OK178567.1) found in camel (Camelus dromedarius) in Egypt; and iii) phylogenetic tree indicated that Babesia agents in RCGS, LJ, LTGS and MFTJ were clustered into a dependent clade. These findings suggest that new species or subspecies of Piroplasma members were found in wild rodents in northwestern China, although more molecular evidence should be supported.