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J Med Microbiol 56 (2007), 1118-1121; DOI: 10.1099/jmm.0.47222-0
© 2007 Society for General Microbiology
ISSN 1473-5644

Case Report

Diagnosis of a Trypanosoma lewisi-like (Herpetosoma) infection in a sick infant from Thailand

Nachai Sarataphan1, Montakan Vongpakorn1, Bandit Nuansrichay1, Nonglux Autarkool1, Tiemjan Keowkarnkah2, Pranee Rodtian3, Roger W. Stich4 and Sathaporn Jittapalapong5

1 National Institute of Animal Health, Kaset Klang, Chatuchak, Bangkok 10900, Thailand

2 Lampang Hospital, Muang, Lampang 52000, Thailand

3 Fifth Bureau of Animal Hygiene and Sanitation, Huaykaew, Chiangmai 50300, Thailand

4 Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA

5 Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Kasetsart University, Bangkok 10900, Thailand

Correspondence
Sathaporn Jittapalapong
fvetspj{at}yahoo.com

Received 9 February 2007
Accepted 24 March 2007

Trypanosomes were observed in a peripheral blood smear from a 45-day-old Thai infant displaying fever, anaemia, cough and anorexia. Human trypanosomiasis is not endemic to Thailand, so parasite identification was undertaken to determine likely sources of the infection. Several morphological parameters of the trypanosomes were similar to those of Trypanosoma evansi and statistically different from those of Trypanosoma lewisi-like parasites from a naturally infected indigenous rat. However, duplicate PCR assays with primers flanking trypanosome rRNA internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS1) resulted in amplicons of ~623 bp that corresponded to the expected size for T. lewisi-like parasites. The ITS1 sequence from the infant's blood was 98 and 49 % identical to T. lewisi and T. evansi sequences, respectively. Based on molecular results, it was concluded that the infant was infected with a T. lewisi-like (Herpetosoma) species.

Abbreviations: ITS1, internal transcribed spacer 1; KI, kinetoplast index; NI, nuclear index.

The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession no. for the 560 bp ITS1 sequence of the T. lewisi-like trypanosome is DQ345394.

A table showing a multiple sequence alignment of ITS1 sequences is available with the online version of this paper.






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