In the present study both microscopy and nested-PCR were checked
for the sensitive detection of B. gibsoni infection in dogs. The sensitivity
Fig. 4. Phylogenetic tree of BgTRAP gene sequences obtained from dogs in India. The tree was inferred using the Neighbour-Joining method, with 1000 bootstrap replicates, involving 19
Indian B. gibsoni isolates detected in this study, 13 Bangladeshi and 15 isolates from Japan, Korea and Taiwan available in the database. B. bovis TRAP genes were incorporated into the tree.
The N. caninum MIC2 homologue gene (AF061273) was used as the outgroup.
M.N. Singh et al. / Infection, Genetics and Evolution 41 (2016) 100–106 105
of 18S rRNA nested-PCR (28.6%) was higher when compared with
microscopic examination (7.9%) for the detection of parasite. Higher
number of stray dogs may be chronically and asymptomatically infected
with B. gibsoni and act as a carrier of the parasites and microscopic
examination of the blood samples is not sensitive enough in the epidemiological
study. Also studies are required for better understanding of
the genetic diversity of B. gibsoni prevalent in other regions of India
and in its neighbouring countries i.e. Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh,
Nepal, Myanmar and Bhutan.