Morphological and Molecular Characterization of Rumen Fluke Species from Sheep in Southeastern Pakistan
Morphological and Molecular Characterization of Rumen Fluke Species from Sheep in Southeastern Pakistan
Mahvish Rajput1, Abdullah G. Arijo1, Muhammad Bachal Bhutto1, Rehana Shahnawaz Buriro2, Javaid Ali Gadahi1, Muhammad Naeem3 and Zubair Ahmed Laghari1*
ABSTRACT
The present study was conducted to determine the prevalence of rumen fluke (Paramphistome spp.) infection in sheep slaughtered at the abattoir of Hyderabad, Pakistan and their molecular characterization with analysis of their evolutionary relationship. A total of 200 rumens from slaughtered sheep were examined and out of 200 sheep, a total of 75 (37.5%) were positive for rumen fluke infection. The results indicate that sheep were infected with the morphologically identical species indicating the only species infecting rumen. Further, it was found that the infection was prevalent in all months sampled but the highest infection rate was observed in November (56%) followed by October (38%), September (34%) and was observed lowest in August (22%). While, the infection rate in both sexes varies but the statistically non-significant difference in the prevalence among females (45%) than males (29%) was observed. Among the isolated rumen flukes, six flukes were used for molecular characterization by amplifying second internal transcribed spacer sequence flanking 5.8S and 28S ribosomal gene sequences (ITS-2+) yielding a 428 bp fragment which were sequenced for further analysis. The nucleotide sequences from 6 isolates were further analyzed for sequence similarities and were used for constructing phylogenetic tree. The sequence and evolutionary relationship analysis indicate that all isolates were belong to the same species and were clustered together with Paramphistomum epiclitum. Taken together, this study provides the baseline data for the prevalence of rumen fluke infection in southeastern Pakistan and their molecular characterization using rDNA ITS-2+ region which serve as useful genetic marker for species identification.
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October 2020
Vol. 52, Iss. 5, Pages 1631-2026
