PMC:7151644 / 21397-22949 JSONTXT

{"project":"2_test","denotations":[{"id":"32296543-27510566-144433907","span":{"begin":364,"end":368},"obj":"27510566"}],"text":"The Sunda pangolin (M. javanica) is geographically distributed widely in South-East Asia, including Indonesia (Java, Sumatra, Borneo, and the Lesser Sunda Islands), Malaysia, Singapore, The Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia (Zhang et al. 2015), whereas Chinese pangolins (M. pentadactyla) are relatively commonplace in Southern China (Choo et al. 2016). To determine the likely geographic origin of these sick pangolins, sequences of mt-cyt b gene were amplified from their tissue. Genetic analysis revealed that all the sequences obtained from Sunda pangolins in this study fell into the M. javanica group, while the Chinese pangolins clustered with those of M. pentadactyla. Notably, three Sunda pangolins sampled here were very closely related to those from Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand and Singapore, with 99.9, 99.7, and 99.9 per cent nt sequence identity, respectively, indicating that they were most likely (illegally) imported into China from abroad. In contrast, the pangolin 3-Ruian (M. pentadactyla) clustered together with those from Taiwan/China, with 99.1 per cent nt sequence identity, suggesting that this animal was not imported. As no sequences related to the A. javanense mitochondrial 16S rDNA were available, we could not determine the origin of the A. javanense ticks collected from sick Sunda pangolins. Hence, a systemic effort should be considered to establish comprehensive databases for the speciation of arthropod vectors and as a tool for determining the geographic origin of the collected arthropods."}