MINI REVIEW article
Front. Parasitol.
Sec. Parasite Genetics
Genetic diversity and genotyping of Echinococcus multilocularis: A minireview
Provisionally accepted
- 1Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut – Federal Research Institute for Animal Health (FLI), Institute of Epidemiology, National Reference Laboratory for Echinococcosis, Greifswald - Insel Riems, Germany
- 2Department of Biology, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
- 3Surveillance Authority for Public Law Duties of the Medical Service East, Bundeswehr, Potsdam, Germany
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The genome of Echinococcus multilocularis, one of the most dangerous endoparasites for humans in the northern hemisphere, has been studied for decades, but its global genetic diversity has not yet been fully deciphered. Yet, our understanding of the diversity of this parasite has recently improved significantly due to the development of new genotyping methods. However, the use of different methods and markers has made it difficult—and in some cases impossible—to compare existing studies directly. As a result, accurate information on the global genetic diversity of E. multilocularis remains unavailable, although such knowledge is essential from both clinical and epidemiological perspectives. Here we provide an overview of the state of knowledge on the genetic diversity of E. multilocularis, and the methods used for genotyping this parasite and provide an outlook on needed future research to understand the diversity of this fascinating parasite.
Keywords: Echinococcus multilocularis, genotyping, genetic diversity, methods, Minireview
Received: 09 Oct 2025; Accepted: 18 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Rachel, Conraths and Maksimov. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Franziska Rachel, franziska.rachel@fli.de
Pavlo Maksimov, pavlo.maksimov@gmail.com
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