Abstract

Gastrointestinal nematode parasites are of major concern for horses, where Strongylus vulgaris is considered the most pathogenic among the Strongylus species. Diagnosis of S. vulgaris infections can be determined with next generation sequencing techniques, which are inherently dependent on reference sequences. The best marker for parasitic nematodes is internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) and we provide the first complete ITS2 sequences from five morphologically identified S. vulgaris and additional sequences from two S. edentatus. These sequences have high similarity to already published partial sequences and amplicon sequence variants (ASV) based on next generation sequencing (NGS). The ITS2 sequences from S. vulgaris matched available partial ITS2 sequences and the full ASVs, whereas the S. edentatus sequence matched another complete sequence. We also compare Sanger sequencing and NGS methods and conclude that the ITS2 variation is better represented with NGS methods. Based on this, we recommend that further sequencing of morphologically identified specimens of various species should be performed with NGS cover the intraspecific variation in the ITS2.

Keywords

Metabarcoding; Nemabiome; Internal transcribed spacer; Species determination; Parasite; Strongyles

Published in

Veterinary Research Communications
2023, Volume: 47, number: 3, pages: 1767-1771
Publisher: SPRINGER

SLU Authors

• Halvarsson, Peter

  • Department of Animal Biosciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Tyden, Eva

  • Department of Animal Biosciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Clinical Science


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11259-022-10067-w

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/120976