Molecular identification of Oesophagostomum and Trichuris eggs isolated from wild Japanese macaques

Abstract

Natural habitat fragmentation and reducing habitat quality have resulted in an increased appearance of Japanese macaques, Macaca fuscata (Gray, 1870), in suburban areas in Japan. To investigate the risk of zoonotic infections, a coprological survey of helminth eggs passed by wild Japanese macaques was carried out in 2009 and 2010 in Shiga Prefecture, Japan. Microscopic examination found helminth eggs in high prevalence, and nucleotide sequencing of DNA extracted from the eggs identified Oesophagostomum cf. aculeatum and Trichuris trichiura. A fecal culture also detected infective larvae of Strongyloides fuelleborni. These zoonotic nematodes pose a potential health issue to local people in areas frequented by Japanese macaques.

Keywords: Japanese macaque; Oesophagostomum aculeatum; Strongyloides fuelleborni; Trichuris trichiura; zoonosis.

Fig. 1

Eggs found in the feces of Japanese macaques. (A) Oesophagostomum cf. aculeatum. (B) Trichuris trichiura.

Fig. 2

Phylogenetic analysis of Trichuris species based on 18S rRNA sequences. Nucleotide sequences were aligned using the ClustalW software. Phylogenetic analyses were conducted using the MEGA 5 software. Genetic relationships were inferred by the Neighbor-Joining (NJ) method using Trichinella spiralis as an outgroup. The final data set contained 1,629 positions. The scale bar indicates nucleotide substitutions per site. The Maximum Parsimony (MP) method resulted in the same topology tree, and 2 sets of bootstrap values (1,000 replicates) by the NJ and MP are shown from left to right. Trichuris Macaque represents that from Japanese macaques analyzed in the present study.