Abstract
According to previous studies, Sarcoptes mites of wombats were relatively recently introduced into Australia by colonizers and/or their dogs. However, that affirmation has been called into question due to apparent flaws in the design of the phylogenetic studies. With the aim of providing a definitive answer to this question, a part of the mitochondrial gene coding for 12S rRNA of S. scabiei mites from 23 humans and one dog collected in France was sequenced and a phylogenetic analysis including the sequences previously deposited in Genbank was performed. Phylogenetic analysis did not show host segregation or geographical isolation of the mites. Conversely, the present work suggested that mange in wombats is indeed due to the introduction of S. scabiei into Australia by immigrating individuals and/or their companion animals.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alasaad S, Soglia D, Spalenza V, Maione S, Soriguer RC, Pérez JM, Rasero R, Degiorgis MP, Nimmervoll H, Zhu XQ, Rossi L (2009) Is ITS-2 rDNA suitable marker for genetic characterization of Sarcoptes mites from different wild animals in different geographic areas? Vet Parasitol 159:181–185
Alasaad S, Rossi L, Heukelbach J, Perez JM, Hamarsheh O, Otiende M, Zhu XQ (2013) The neglected navigating web of the incomprehensibly emerging and re-emerging Sarcoptes mite. Infect Genet Evol 17:253–259
Andriantsoanirina V, Izri A, Botterel F, Foulet F, Chosidow O, Durand R (2014) Molecular survey of knockdown resistance to pyrethroids in human scabies mites. Clin Microbiol Infect 20:O139–O141
Arlian LG, Runyan RA, Estes SA (1984) Cross infestivity of Sarcoptes scabiei. J Am Acad Dermatol 10:979–986
Barker IK (1974) Sarcoptes scabiei infestation of a koala (Phascolarctos cinereus), with probable human involvement. Aust Vet J 50:528
Bazargani TT, Hallan JA, Nabian S, Rahbari S (2007) Sarcoptic mange of gazelle (Gazella subguttarosa) and its medical importance in Iran. Parasitol Res 101:1517–1520
Chosidow O (2006) Scabies. N Engl J Med 354:1718–1727
Cruickshank RH (2002) Molecular markers for the phylogenetics of mites and ticks. Syst Appl Acarol 7:3–14
Curole JP, Kocher TD (1999) Mitogenomics: digging deeper with complete mitochondrial genomes. Trends Ecol Evol 14:394–398
Currier RW, Walton SF, Currie BJ (2011) Scabies in animals and humans: history, evolutionary perspectives, and modern clinical management. Ann N Y Acad Sci 1230(E50):E60
Dabert M (2006) DNA markers in the phylogenetics of the Acari. Biol Lett 43:97–107
Fain A (1978) Epidemiological problem of Scabies. Int J Dermatol 17:20–30
Felsenstein J (1985) Confidence limits on phylogenies: an approach using the bootstrap. Evolution 39:783–791
Hall TA (1999) BioEdit: a user-friendly biological sequence alignment editor and analysis program for Windows 95/98/NT. Nucleic Acids Symp Ser 41:95
Holz PH, Orbell GMB, Beveridge I (2011) Sarcoptic mange in a wild swamp wallaby (Wallabia bicolor). Aust Vet J 89:458–459
Kambhampati S, Smith PT (1995) PCR primers for the amplification of four insect mitochondrial gene fragments. Insect Mol Biol 4:233–236
Martin RW, Handasyde KA, Skerratt LF (1998) Current distribution of sarcoptic mange in wombats. Aust Vet J 76:411–414
Menzano A, Rambozzi L, Rossi L (2004) Outbreak of scabies in human beings, acquired from chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra). Vet Rec 155:568
Morrison DA, Ljunggren EL, Mattsson JG (2003) The origin of Sarcoptes scabiei in wombats. Parasitol Res 91:497–499
Renteria-Solis Z, Min AM, Alasaad S, Müller K, Michler F-U, Schmäschke R, Wittstatt U, Rossi L, Wibbelt G (2014) Genetic epidemiology and pathology of raccoon-derived Sarcoptes mites from urban areas of Germany. Med Vet Entomol 28(1):98–103
Skerratt LF, Beveridge I (1999) Human scabies of wombat origin. Aust Vet J 77:607
Skerratt LF, Martin RW, Handasyde KA (1998) Sarcoptic mange in wombats. Aust Vet J 76:408–410
Skerratt LF, Campbell NJH, Murrell A, Walton S, Kemp D, Barker SC (2002) The mitochondrial 12S gene is a suitable marker of populations of Sarcoptes scabiei from wombats, dogs and humans in Australia. Parasitol Res 88:376–379
Tamura K (1992) Estimation of the number of nucleotide substitutions when there are strong transition-transversion and G + C-content biases. Mol Biol Evol 9:678–687
Tamura K, Peterson D, Peterson N, Stecher G, Nei M, Kumar S (2011) MEGA5: molecular evolutionary genetics analysis using maximum likelihood, evolutionary distance, and maximum parsimony methods. Mol Biol Evol 28:2731–2739
Thomsett LR (1968) Mite infestations of man contracted from dog and cats. BMJ 3:93–95
Acknowledgments
This study was supported partly by the French Society of Dermatology, Research Grant March 2013. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Andriantsoanirina, V., Ariey, F., Izri, A. et al. Wombats acquired scabies from humans and/or dogs from outside Australia. Parasitol Res 114, 2079–2083 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-015-4422-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-015-4422-2