Comparison of Morphometric and Molecular Methods in The Identification of Fasciola Species in Golestan Province

Background and Aim : The genus Fasciola parasite causes Fascioliasis infection. Fascioliasis is widespread all around the world and is found in abundance in the northern provinces of Iran. Cattle and sheep are the main hosts of the Fasciola parasite . Two main species of this genus are F. hepatica and F. gigantica. The aim of this study is to identify Fasciola through morphometric and molecular methods in Golestan provinceMethods : Fasciola worms taken from infected livestock livers then small sections from worms separated and kept in Ethanol ۷۰°. In order to extract DNA samples, phenol-chloroform technique was used. A part of ITS-۱ genome was amplified by a special primer. To separate the two species from each other, TasI enzyme was utilized for amplified fragments. All worms were stained with carmine acid. After staining, the worms were measured morphologically by calibrated microscope which had True Chrome II camera.Results : A morphologic study carried out to isolate ۲۷۱ samples including ۱۰۷ Fasciola hepatica (۳۹.۴۸%), ۱۳۷ Fasciola gigantica (۵۰.۵۵%) and ۲۷ Fasciola sp. (۹.۹۶%). Through PCR-RFLP, it was indicated that of ۲۷۱ worms taken from infected sheep and cattle with Fasciola, ۱۲۶ were identified as Fasciola hepatica (۴۶.۴۹%), ۱۴۵ as Fasciola gigantica (۵۳.۵۰%) .Conclusion : This study showed the main two species of worms, that is F.hepatica and F.gigantica were found in abundance in Golestan province. It was also found that molecular method works well in detecting genus of Fasciola than morphological methods.

کلیدواژه ها:

Morphometric ، Molecular ، Fasciola and Golestan