Diagnosis of Centrocestus formosanus Infection in Zebrafish (Danio rerio) in Italy: A Window to a New Globalization-Derived Invasive Microorganism.

ABSTRACT: :Centrocestus formosanus is a digenetic trematode with a complex life cycle, involving invertebrate and vertebrate hosts, humans included. In particular, it causes gill lesions and mortality in freshwater fish species, and gastrointestinal symptoms in infected humans. Here, we describe the occurrence of C. formosanus infection in zebrafish imported in Italy and propose a newly designed species-specific primer pair to ameliorate the diagnostic investigations for C. formosanus. Gill arches of 30 zebrafish were examined for the presence of encysted metacercariae under a stereomicroscope and processed through molecular analyses targeting the ribosomal internal transcribed sequence 2 (ITS2). Although C. formosanus distribution was originally restricted to Asia, it has been subsequently reported

SUBMITTER: Pace A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7143865 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature