Metagenomiska analyser av parasitära nematoder i fekala prover från idisslare

Senast ändrad: 30 augusti 2022
Illustration som visar veterinär och DNA

Nematode parasites trigger production-limiting endemic diseases that are an important constraint on the animal health and productivity. Apart from inducing losses due to sub-clinical infections and accompanying performance penalties, heavy nematode infections might cause severe clinical symptom and sometimes mortalities.

Taken together, these infections threaten the viability of the livestock industries worldwide including the EU and in Sweden. Current parasite control measures primarily rely upon repeated anthelmintic treatments, but this approach is threatened by the widespread evolution of drug-resistance in particular species. Consequently, accurate species identification is critical both in epidemiological studies and monitoring of drug resistance in flocks subjected to anthelmintic treatment. However, due to a close morphological similarity between the eggs and larval stages, such identification is not a trivial task with traditional parasitological techniques and depend on expertise that is steadily declining.

The objective of this study is to develop a next generation sequencing (NGS) based protocol for species delineation of nematode communities that are present in complex samples composed of multiple species contained in different genera. Such a diagnostic tool is an essential prerequisite to investigate the dynamic alterations in parasite community structure relative to deworming strategies. The same technique can also be applied to study possible alterations in the nematode community structure in areas with differing levels of interaction between domestic livestock and wildlife ruminants, but also in relation to animal trade resulting in animal movement between regions and different farms. Accordingly we expect to get access to a tool so that we in detail can investigate the complex interplay between different host animals and their parasites and how this is influenced by various biological and environmental factors.