Genetic variability ofEucoleus aerophilusfrom domestic and wild hosts

Eucoleus aerophilus(syn.Capillaria aerophila) is a trichuroid nematode affecting domestic and wild carnivores and, sometimes, humans. This parasite has a worldwide distribution and may cause significant clinical disease in pet animals. The present paper investigates the sequence variation in partial mitochondrial cytochromecoxidase subunit 1 (cox1) gene ofE. aerophilusisolates from pets and wild animals from different countries. Forty-four egg pools ofE. aerophiluswere collected from dogs, cats and foxes from Italy, while seventeen adult stages ofE. aerophiluswere obtained from red foxes and beech martens from Portugal, Romania, Serbia and UK. Fifteen different haplotypes were characterized and five were shared between pets in Italy and wildlife from Europe. The remaining haplotypes were either confined only in hosts or countries, or in a given host from a country. The phylogenetic analysis showed that all haplotypes clustered as a monophyletic group with a strong nodal support, indicating that all sequence types representedE. aerophilus. The results here presented have implications for a better understanding of the epidemiology, phylo-geography and clinical impact ofE. aerophilus. In particular, the geographic distribution ofE. aerophilushaplotypes in different host species and geographic regions, and their variation in terms of pathogenic impact and zoonotic role, warrant further investigations.