Genetic uniformity of Echinococcus multilocularis collected from different intermediate host species in Hokkaido, Japan

DNA from several isolates of Taenia taeniaeformis and Echinococcus multilocularis were digested with restriction enzymes and hybridized with digoxigenated oligonucleotide probe (CAC)5. Within the six wild isolates of Taenia taeniaeformis from Norway rats in Hokkaido, although several bands were common among isolates, fingerprinting patterns were specific to each isolate. In the case of E. multilocularis, regardless of hosts from which each isolate has been isolated, the five isolates collected from Hokkaido, showed the same fingerprinting pattern. These results indicate that there was very little genetic difference among these isolates. Although the fingerprinting pattern of E. multilocularis from St. Lawrence Is. was similar to that of the Hokkaido isolates, some bands were different from those in the Hokkaido isolates. Echinococcus multilocularis in Hokkaido seems to be closely-related genetically to that from St. Lawrence Is.