Molecular identification and phylogenetic analysis of Echinococcus vogeli Rausch & Bernstein, 1972 from Cuniculus...

Hunting wild animals for consumption is a common practice in the Brazilian Amazon and contributes to the transmission of zoonotic diseases, including neotropical echinococcosis (NE), caused by Echinococcus vogeli and Echinococcus oligarthra. Despite the endemicity of E. vogeli in this region, molecular data on its genetic diversity remain limited. This study characterized E. vogeli isolates obtained from lowland pacas (Cuniculus paca) in extractive reserves located in Xapuri and Sena Madureira, Acre, Brazil, using mitochondrial (cox1) and nuclear (p29) markers. All 16 isolates were confirmed as E. vogeli. Analysis of cox1 sequences revealed high similarity with reference sequences from the Brazilian Amazon, low nucleotide divergence (0-0.55%), and the presence of four haplotypes, including shared haplotypes between the two study areas. In contrast, no intraspecific variation was observed in the p29 sequences. These findings indicate low genetic diversity and suggest a relatively homogeneous pattern among the analyzed isolates, which may reflect gene flow or retention of ancestral polymorphisms. This study expands the limited molecular dataset available for E. vogeli, including additional p29 sequence data for this species, a molecular marker that remains poorly represented for E. vogeli, and provides relevant insights into its transmission dynamics in Amazonian environments.