Journal
PARASITOLOGY RESEARCH
Volume 111, Issue 4, Pages 1615-1620Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s00436-012-3000-0
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Funding
- Red de Investigacion de Centros de Enfermedades Tropicales (RICET) [C03/04, ISCIII2005-PI050574, ISCIII-RETIC RD06/0021/0017]
- FIS, Ministry of Health, Madrid, Spain
- MICIT (Science and Technology Ministry, Costa Rica)
- CONICIT (Science and Technology Research Council, Costa Rica)
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According to the genetic characterization by the analysis of the miniexon gene, strains of Trypanosoma cruzi can be classified into six discrete typing units (DTUs), and the DTU 1 into four distinct genotypes associated with different life cycles. While Chagas disease is endemic in Costa Rica, T. cruzi isolates from this region have never been genetically characterized. An analysis of 16 isolates from Costa Rica, based on miniexon gene analysis, showed the existence of two different haplotypes in the country, closely related to the Colombian haplotype group TcIa and to sequences from several Mexican isolates, with eight variable positions in the alignment and a variability of 2.6 % between the compared sequences. No relationship between the habitat, vector or host, and the haplotypes was found, suggesting an active flow of T. cruzi in the country. The present study also reports a very high infection rate (47.3 %, 26 out of 55 specimens) in a Costa Rican population of Triatoma dimidiata, the main vector of Chagas disease in this country. The distribution and abundance of the parasite and its main vector suggest a high risk of Chagas disease emergence in Costa Rica.
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