1. Significant morphological but little molecular differences between Trypanosoma of rodents from Alaska.
- Author
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Laakkonen J, Smith A, Hildebrandt K, Niemimaa J, and Henttonen H
- Subjects
- Alaska, Animals, DNA, Protozoan isolation & purification, Electrophoresis, Agar Gel veterinary, Erythrocytes parasitology, Female, Haplotypes, Insect Vectors parasitology, Male, Polymerase Chain Reaction veterinary, Pregnancy, RNA, Ribosomal, 18S genetics, Shrews parasitology, Siphonaptera parasitology, Trypanosoma classification, Trypanosoma genetics, Trypanosomiasis parasitology, Arvicolinae parasitology, Rodent Diseases parasitology, Trypanosoma ultrastructure, Trypanosomiasis veterinary
- Abstract
We examined blood smears of 173 rodents and 33 shrews captured at 4 sites in the Gates of the Arctic National Park, northern Alaska, in summer 2002. Trypanosoma spp. were detected in the plasma of 5 Microtus oeconomus, 4 Microtus miurus, and 1 Lemmus trimucronatus. The trypomastigote morphology from different individuals of M. oeconomus caught at the same site and of M. miurus from different sites varied significantly. The 4 DNA sequences obtained from the blood smear positive samples contained 2 different haplotypes very similar to each other and to that of Trypanosoma microti. Of possible vectors of blood parasites, the flea Amalaraeus dissimilis was collected from M. miurus.
- Published
- 2005
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