RESEARCH ARTICLE Examination of Sarcocystis spp. of giant snakes from Australia and Southeast Asia confirms presence of a known pathogen ± Sarcocystis nesbitti Marion Wassermann1, Lisa Raisch1, Jessica Ann Lyons2, Daniel James Deans Natusch3, Sarah Richter1, Mareike Wirth1, Piyarat Preeprem4, Yuvaluk Khoprasert4, Sulaiman Ginting5, Ute Mackenstedt1, Thomas JaÈkel1,4* a1111111111 a1111111111 1 Department of Zoology, Division of Parasitology, University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany, 2 Resource Evaluation and Development, Bamaga, Queensland, Australia, 3 School of Life and a1111111111 Environmental Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia, 4 Plant Protection Research and a1111111111 Development Office, Department of Agriculture, Bangkok, Thailand, 5 Islamic University of North Sumatra, a1111111111 Medan, Indonesia *
[email protected] OPEN ACCESS Abstract Citation: Wassermann M, Raisch L, Lyons JA, Natusch DJD, Richter S, Wirth M, et al. (2017) We examined Sarcocystis spp. in giant snakes from the Indo-Australian Archipelago and Examination of Sarcocystis spp. of giant snakes Australia using a combination of morphological (size of sporocyst) and molecular analyses. from Australia and Southeast Asia confirms We amplified by PCR nuclear 18S rDNA from single sporocysts in order to detect mixed presence of a known pathogen ± Sarcocystis infections and unequivocally assign the retrieved sequences to the corresponding parasite nesbitti. PLoS ONE 12(11): e0187984. https://doi. org/10.1371/journal.pone.0187984 stage. Sarcocystis infection was generally high across the study area, with 78 (68%) of 115 examined pythons being infected by one or more Sarcocystis spp. Among 18 randomly cho- Editor: Tzen-Yuh Chiang, National Cheng Kung University, TAIWAN sen, sporocyst-positive samples (11 from Southeast Asia, 7 from Northern Australia) the only Sarcocystis species detected in Southeast Asian snakes was S.