Prevalence and molecular characterization of liver fluke in Sulaimani Province, Kurdistan, Iraq

The aims of this study were to determine the prevalence of Fascioliasis among animals and molecular characterization of liver flukes through polymerase chain reaction (PCR), restriction enzyme fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) and DNA sequencing. The data and samples of animal were collected at the slaughterhouse of Sulaimani Governorate; A total of 205 flukes was collected from 56 infected livistoks; cattle (n = 22), sheep (n = 28) and goats (n = 6). The universal primer (COX1) was used to amplify 836 bp then the PCR products were subjected to the RFLP and sequencing. The results of epidemiological study showed the overall prevalence of Fasciolasis among animals was 1.58% and the higher rate of Fasciolasis was recorded among sheep (2.8%). The results of the PCR-RFLP of the COX1 showed the isolated flukes belonged to F. hepatica and F. gigantic with some genetic variation, and the result of the DNA sequencing was deposited in the Gene Bank under the following Accession numbers; F. gigantica (OP718780 and OP718781) and F. hepatica (OP718782, OP718783, and OP718784). The present study concludes that F. hepatica and F. gigantica are both responsible for human and animal Fasciolosis in Kurdistan-Iraq, Therefore, RFLP techniques and DNA sequencing are a reliable, for species identification of liver fluke.