Genetics of the pig tapeworm in madagascar reveal a history of human dispersal and colonization.

ABSTRACT: An intricate history of human dispersal and geographic colonization has strongly affected the distribution of human pathogens. The pig tapeworm Taenia solium occurs throughout the world as the causative agent of cysticercosis, one of the most serious neglected tropical diseases. Discrete genetic lineages of T. solium in Asia and Africa/Latin America are geographically disjunct; only in Madagascar are they sympatric. Linguistic, archaeological and genetic evidence has indicated that the people in Madagascar have mixed ancestry from Island Southeast Asia and East Africa. Hence, anthropogenic introduction of the tapeworm from Southeast Asia and Africa had been postulated. This study shows that the major mitochondrial haplotype of T. solium in Madagascar is closely related to those from the In

SUBMITTER: Yanagida T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4198324 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature