Dear Editor

Echinococcus granulosus (Eg) is a parasite causing an incidental infection in humans. The disease can be observed as a hydatid cyst in the liver and lungs and is found in dogs and wolves as definitive hosts. It is considered a neglected infectious disease which has rarely been studied in Mexico¹. In several studies worldwide, the genetic study of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequencing of cox1 and nad1 partial sequences is predominant. However, studies of haplotypes obtained or concatenated (analysis combining sequences of two or more genes) are scarce.

The research group in Medical Science of the Universidad de La Frontera, located in the Araucania Region in Chile where Eg is endemic, recently created a study group to analyze this disease from the clinical and basic sciences viewpoint. Consequently, during different studies performed, the group has identified the various haplotypes informed in the literature and is interested in contributing and sharing with the scientific community, the information collected and classified according to the main characteristics of the disease.

Eg has high genetic variability and the classification applied in different studies is diverse. In reference to the different populations informed, the analysis of haplotypes can help to trace changes in the evolutive forces, to perform in phylogeography analysis and to determine the global genetic structure²,³. By having the information available, the researchers performing mtDNA haplotype analysis can easily access published data to compare and design their haplotype analysis. The information may be accessed as supplementary material (Supplementary Table 1).