Abstract
Psoroptes ovis var. cuniculi is a common ectoparasite of the wild and domestic rabbits worldwide, which causes significant economic losses in commercial rabbit breeding. In China, the diagnosis of rabbits infested with P. ovis var. cuniculi currently relies on detection of clinical signs and Psoroptes mites in skin scrapings by microscopy examination. However, this method is not very efficient in detection of the low mite loads and/or sub-clinical infections. In the present study, we cloned and expressed an arginine kinase homolog gene from P. ovis var. cuniculi (Poc-AK) and used its recombinant protein rPoc-AK to develop an indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (iELISA) method for diagnosis of P. ovis var. cuniculi infestation in rabbits. The results showed that the rPoc-AK protein was ~61 kDa and had no signal peptide. The rPoc-AK-based iELISA achieved a 94.4% sensitivity and a 88.2% specificity, and was able to detect P. ovis var. cuniculi infection as early as the 1st week post-infection, prior to the appearance of clinical signs. Further field study showed 24.94% (66.33/266) clinically normal rabbits were seropositive with the highest and lowest seropositive rates for California (35.71%) and Belgian (15.14%), respectively. These results suggested that the rPoc-AK has potential as a diagnostic antigen for early P. ovis var. cuniculi infestation in rabbits.
Highlights
Psoroptes ovis var. cuniculi is a common ectoparasite of the wild and domestic rabbits worldwide and causes over 70% incidence rate in China [1,2,3]
P. ovis var. cuniculi infections were examined according to two gold standards, i.e., skin lesion condition and identification of P. ovis var. cuniculi mites in skin scrapings [15]
We identified six highly conserved motifs in the deduced amino acid sequence of Poc-Arginine kinase (AK), including an arginine binding site, an ADP binding site, a substrate binding site, a synergistic substrate binding site (D78, Y84, R208, and P287) and an arginine enzyme active site residue essential
Summary
Psoroptes ovis var. cuniculi ( known as Psoroptes cuniculi) is a common ectoparasite of the wild and domestic rabbits worldwide and causes over 70% incidence rate in China [1,2,3]. Cuniculi ( known as Psoroptes cuniculi) is a common ectoparasite of the wild and domestic rabbits worldwide and causes over 70% incidence rate in China [1,2,3]. Cuniculi currently relies on detection of clinical signs and further confirmation by observation of Psoroptes mites in skin scrapings using microscopy examination. In China, the diagnosis of rabbits infested with P. ovis var. This method is highly sensitive in severely affected rabbits, but low sensitive in the low mite loads and/or sub-clinical infections. The collection and examination of skin-scrapings from rabbits are time-consuming, tedious, and impractical.
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