A specimen of an unidentified parasite was taken out of the eye ball of an 8-year-old boy hospitalized in April 1964. A detailed analysis of the parasite showed that in was the Ist larval stage of Hypoderma bovis. The conservative treatment was unsuccessful and the eye ball, largely domaged by the parasite, had to be removed.
DNA barcoding is a practical tool for species identification, when morphological classification of an organism is difficult. Herein we describe the utilisation of this technique in a case of ophthalmomyiasis interna. A 12-year-old boy was infested during a summer holiday in northern Norway, while visiting an area populated with reindeer. Following medical examination, a Diptera larva was surgically removed from the boy’s eye and tentatively identified from its morphological traits as Hypoderma tarandi (L.) (Diptera: Oestridae). Ultimately, DNA barcoding confirmed this impression. The larval cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (COI) DNA sequence was matched with both profiles of five adult H. tarandi from the same region where the boy was infested, and other established profiles of H. tarandi in the Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD) identification engine.
The stability of 2 H. bovis antigens prepared by different methods was examined by the ELISA. It was found that the activity of H. bovis secretory antigen kept at - 18°C and -70° C and full antigen stored at - 18°C was significantly decreased as early as 6 months after storage. Lyophilized, secretory H. bovis antigen showed constant, high activity and may be used for one year at least.