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Molecular phylogenetics of the elephant schistosome Bivitellobilharzia loxodontae (Trematoda: Schistosomatidae) from the Central African Republic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2012

S.V. Brant ,
K. Pomajbíková ,
D. Modry ,
K.J. Petrželková ,
A. Todd  and
E.S. Loker
S.V. Brant*
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, New Mexico, USA
K. Pomajbíková
Affiliation:
Department of Pathology and Parasitology, University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Brno, Czech Republic
D. Modry
Affiliation:
Department of Pathology and Parasitology, University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Brno, Czech Republic Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, >České Budějovice, Czech Republic
K.J. Petrželková
Affiliation:
Institute of Vertebrate Biology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Brno, Czech Republic Liberec Zoo, Masarykova, Liberec, Czech Republic
A. Todd
Affiliation:
World Wildlife Fund, Bangui, Central African Republic
E.S. Loker
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, New Mexico, USA
*
* E-mail: sbrant@unm.edu
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Abstract

One of the most poorly known of all schistosomes infecting mammals is Bivitellobilharzia loxodontae. Nearly all of our available information about this species comes from the original description of worms that were obtained from an animal park-maintained elephant in Germany, probably a forest elephant Loxodonta cyclotis, originating from the present-day Democratic Republic of Congo. We obtained schistosome eggs from faecal samples from wild forest elephants from the Central African Republic. The eggs, which were similar in size and shape to those of described B. loxodontae, were sequenced for the 28S nuclear ribosomal gene and the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (cox1) gene. In a phylogenetic analysis of 28S sequences, our specimens grouped closely with B. nairi, the schistosome from the Indian elephant Elephas maximus, to the exclusion of schistosomes from other genera. However, the eggs were genetically distinct (12% distance cox1) from those of B. nairi. We conclude the specimens we recovered were of B. loxodontae and confirm this is a distinct Bivitellobilharzia species. In addition to providing the first sequence data for B. loxodontae, this report also supports Bivitellobilharzia as a monophyletic group and gives the relative phylogenetic position of the genus within the Schistosomatidae. We also provide a review of the biology of this poorly known schistosome genus.

Type
Research Papers
Information
Journal of Helminthology , Volume 87 , Issue 1 , March 2013 , pp. 102 - 107
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012. This is a work of the U.S. Government and is not subject to copyright protection in the United States.

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