Prevalence and Molecular Discrimination of the Neglected Hydatidosis in Camels and Humans, Egypt

Abstract

Hydatidosis is a neglected zoonotic parasitic infestation caused by Echinococcus granulosus. The goal of this study was to assess the prevalence and molecular discrimination of a neglected hydatidosis from camels and humans in Egypt. The hydatid cysts macroscopically and microscopically investigated and for cyst fertility. PCR and DNA sequencing used for molecular identification. A total of slaughtered camels (1220) had an overall infestation rate of hydatidosis of 8.7%. The lung was the most often infected organ (6.9 %,) followed by the liver (1.8%). Spring and summer showed the highest infestation rate (3.03 and 2.55%) than autumn and winter (1.98 and 1.23%) seasons. The hydatid cysts' fertility rate was 65.5%. PCR using amplified cox1 gen revealed that all human and camel hydrated cysts and only one camel sera were positive at 450 bp, The phylogenetic analysis showed that human and camel isolates exhibited high homology (95-100%) with reference sequences of Echinococcus granulosous G6 (camel strain) in GenBank (KU359037, KU220240, MW173484 and MW173485). The obtained results demonstrate the high prevalence of hydatid cysts in camels and reflect the spread of the infection from dogs (final host), to camels and humans (intermediate hosts) in Egypt. The strong genotyping homology between the studied camel and human hydatid cyst samples with the E. granulosous camel strain (G6) indicates the necessity for a bigger investigation that analyzes several hydatid cyst isolates from various geographic locations.