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Ascariasis Is a Zoonosis in Denmark

Department of Genetics and Ecology,¹ Institute of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of Aarhus, Aarhus,⁶ Danish Centre for Experimental Parasitology, The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University,² Danish Bacon and Meat Council, Copenhagen,³ Department of Clinical Microbiology, Viborg-Kjellerup Hospital, Viborg, Denmark,⁵ Laboratory Sciences Division, International Centre for Diarrheal Diseases Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh⁴

Received 31 August 2004/ Returned for modification 19 October 2004/ Accepted 7 November 2004

A preliminary epidemiological survey indicated an association between Ascaris infections in Danish patients and contact with pigs or pig manure. In the present study, we compared Ascaris worms collected from humans and Ascaris worms collected from pigs by amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) analysis, a technique for whole-genome fingerprinting, and by PCR-linked restricted fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) analysis of the internal transcribed spacer region of nuclear rDNA. The AFLP data were analyzed by distance- and model-based clustering methods. These results assigned Ascaris worms from Danish patients to a cluster different from that for worms from humans in other geographic areas. In contrast, worms from humans and pigs in Denmark were assigned to the same cluster. These results were supported by the PCR-RFLP results. Thus, all of the examined Danish patients had acquired Ascaris infections from domestic pigs; ascariasis may therefore be considered a zoonotic disease in Denmark.

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