Cystic echinococcosis (CE) and alveolar echinococcosis (AE) are considered as one of the most
important zoonotic diseases in Romania, where they are subject to mandatory reporting. To obtain
more knowledge about the genetic diversity of Echinococcus causative agents of these diseases, 11
isolates from humans and ungulate intermediate hosts from the two regions of Romania were genotyped
using mitochondrial markers. In clinical samples of fi ve patients from north-eastern Romania
(Iasi, Botosani, Vaslui counties), Echinococcus multilocularis was identifi ed as causal agent by cox1
sequence analysis. To the best of our knowledge this fi nding presents the fi rst molecular evidence
of E. multilocularis in humans from Romania. Only two cases of AE in patients were previously documented
in the country by serological methods. In our four patients the most widespread European
variant E5 of E. multilocularis was recorded, whereas in isolate from Vaslui county three nucleotide
substitutions were detected as compared to the most related E5 haplotype. One of these mutations
(411T/G) matched N1 and N2 haplotypes described previously from North America. In six CE samples
retrieved from western Romania (Caras-Severin and Timis counties), two human isolates were
diagnosed as Echinococcus canadensis G7, one as E. granulosus s.s. G1 and one as E. granulosus
s.s. G3 using atp6 and rrnS sequencing. In ungulates, the cattle isolate was allocated to E. granulosus
s.s. G1 and pig isolate to E. canadensis G7. The two G7 fi ndings in humans reinforced the
recent view that G7 was underestimated as compared to the E. granulosus s.s. regarding human
CE threat that can be further employed for identifying sources of infections and establishing suitable
preventive measures
