• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.21-26
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• 2014

Dirofilaria immitis (heartworm) infections affect domestic dogs, cats, and various wild mammals with increasing incidence in temperate and tropical areas. More sensitive antibody detection methodologies are required to diagnose asymptomatic dirofilariasis with low worm burdens. Applying current transcriptomic technologies would be useful to discover potential diagnostic markers for D. immitis infection. A filarial homologue of the mammalian translationally controlled tumor protein (TCTP) was initially identified by screening the assembled transcriptome of D. immitis (DiTCTP). A BLAST analysis suggested that the DiTCTP gene shared the highest similarity with TCTP from Loa loa at protein level (97%). A histidine-tagged recombinant DiTCTP protein (rDiTCTP) of 40 kDa expressed in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) showed immunoreactivity with serum from a dog experimentally infected with heartworms. Localization studies illustrated the ubiquitous presence of rDiTCTP protein in the lateral hypodermal chords, dorsal hypodermal chord, muscle, intestine, and uterus in female adult worms. Further studies on D. immitis-derived TCTP are warranted to assess whether this filarial protein could be used for a diagnostic purpose.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.60-66
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• 2005

To select the rapid and efficient molecular subtyping method for epidemiologic monitoring of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) strains at clinical laboratory levels, a total 116 of S. aureus and MRSA (methicillin-resistant S. aureus) strains from diverse animal species [Korean cattle, goat, pig, dog, chicken, mouse] and also humans were analyzed. To evaluate the discriminatory ability (DA) of individual PCR methods, random amplified polymorphic of DNA [RAPD; 4M & RA primer], repetitive extragenic palindromic sequences PCR (REP-PCR), and enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus sequences PCR (ERIC-PCR) methods were conducted and then compared on their Simpson's index of diversity (SID) values based on the dendrogram patterns, which was produced by software program (BiolD2+ & GelCompar II). In first, RAPD using the 4M primer (SID 0.915) was expressed more higher SID value than that of RA primer (SID 0.874). 4M primer was expressed more powerful DA than RA. Both REP-PCR (SID 0.930) and ERIC-PCR (SID 0.929) methods showed much more higher DA than that of RAPD. According to the present results, both REP-PCR and ERIC-PCR among the tested analysis methods were found as the most reliable and discriminative molecular subtyping method, because they expressed the highest DA for the present S. aureus and MRSA strains.

• Journal of Veterinary Science
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.20.1-20.8
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• 2022

Background: Emergent and re-emergent canine tick-borne infections are attracting increasing attention worldwide. The rise in pet ownership and the close relationship between dogs and their owners are the most concerning factors because dogs may act as competent reservoirs for human tick-transmitted infectious agents. Objectives: This study contributes to the epidemiological surveillance of canine tick-transmitted infections with zoonotic risk in the Republic of Korea (ROK) by investigating the seroprevalence of the pathogens, Anaplasma spp., Borrelia burgdorferi, and Ehrlichia canis. Methods: Four hundred and thirty whole blood samples from domestic dogs were collected in seven metropolitan cities and nine provinces in the ROK and tested using SensPERT Ab test kits (VetAll Laboratories^®) to detect seroreactive animals. Results: The seroprevalence rates identified were 9.8% (42/430) for Anaplasma spp., 2.8% (12/430) for B. burgdorferi, and 1.4% (6/430) for E. canis. The risk factors evaluated in this study that could be associated with the development of a humoral immune response, such as sex, age, and history of tick exposure, were similar. There was only one exception for dogs seroreactive to Anaplasma spp., where the risk factor "tick exposure" was statistically significant (p = 0.047). Conclusions: This serological survey exhibited the widespread presence of Anaplasma spp., B. burgdorferi, and E. canis throughout the ROK. Hence, dogs may play a key role as the sentinel animals of multiple zoonotic infectious agents in the country.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.24-37
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• 2005

This study was conducted to analyze the molecular epidemiological properties and to select the most efficient and reliable PCR method on 116 of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) isolates from Korean cattle, black goat, pig, dog, chicken, mouse and also human clinical cases from hospital. The distribution patterns of SSG [species specific genes; coagulase (coa), protein A (spa), nuclease (nuc) and aroA (RsaI) gene] were analyzed by PCR method. Among the SSGs, the nuc-gene was found in all strains $(100\%)$ tested and followed by coa-gene $(87.9\%)$, spa-gene $(91.4\%)$ and aroA-gene $(26.7\%)$, in order. The genetic subtyping by RFLP method was performed on the coa [AluI] and aroA-gene [RsaI] PCR products. The mecA-gene PCR and PCR-RFLP techniques were chosen to detect and verify of MRSA strains. Only the human strains $(12.1\%)$ were detected the positive mecA-gene products (533 bp), which were divided into two specific bands [201 & 332 bp] by HhaI enzyme digestion. On coa-gene and spa-gene typing, coa-gene was typed with ten kinds of genotype and coa-3 type were determined as the most predominant genotype, while spa-gene was divided into eleven kinds of genotype and also spa-7 type were selected the most prevalent genotype based on their genetic variations. On the aroA and coa-gene subtyping by PCR-RFLP, aroA-gene products were discriminated with only seven types of genotype, while coa-gene products were further divided into an eleven genotype, respectively. In comparison of SID values of five PCR based typing methods, the coa-PCR-RFLP (SID0.894) was evaluated the most efficient and reliable tools and followed by coa-PCR (SID0.883) and aroA-PCR-RFLP (SID0.462), in order. In conclusion, we could determined that the coa-PCR-RFLP method was the most suitable genetic analysis tool for S. aureus and MRSA strains from domestic animals and humans.