THE MOLECULAR GENOTYPING OF ECHINOCOCCUS MULTILOCULARIS IN ARCTIC FOXES FROM THE LOWER KOLYMA (NORTH-EAST YAKUTIA)
The study of the nucleotide sequence of the first subunit of cytochrome-c-oxidase mtDNA of the Echinococcus multilocularis Leuckart, 1863 cestodes from Arctic foxes from the Lower Kolyma (north-east of Yakutia) showed that they belong to the North American genotype. The «hypothesis of strains», offered by V. I. Shakhmatova in 1981, has been molecular-genetically confirmed. According to this hypothesis, there are two strains on Russia’s territory - the one pathogenic for humans (fox strain) and the low pathogenic one (Arctic fox strain). The detection of the North American genotype in Arctic foxes from Yakutia suggests that this genotype has the trans-Beringian distribution.