Analysis of 16S rRNA and 51-kilodalton antigen gene and transmission in mice of Ehrlichia risticii in virgulate trematodes from Elimia livescens snails in Ohio.

ABSTRACT: Operculate snails (the family Pleuroceridae: Elimia livescens) were collected between June and October 1998 from a river in central Ohio where repeated cases of Potomac horse fever (PHF) have occurred. Of collected snails, consistently 50 to 80% carried a combination of cercariae and sporocysts of digenetic virgulate trematodes. The trematodes obtained from each snail were pooled and tested for Ehrlichia risticii, the agent of PHF, by nested PCR using primers specific to the 16S rRNA gene. Out of a total of 209 trematode pools, 50 pools were found to be positive by PCR. The DNA sequence of the 16S rRNA gene identified in one trematode pool was identical to that of the type strain of E. risticii, and the sequence of the gene identified in another pool differed from that of the type strain b

SUBMITTER: Kanter M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC87385 | biostudies-literature | 2000 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature