Gastrointestinal (GI) parasitic infections are a world-wide problem for both small-and large-scale farmers. Infection by GI parasites in ruminants, including sheep and goat can result in harsh economic losses in a variety of ways: reproductive inefficiency, decreased work capacity, involuntary culling, diminished food intake, poor animal growth rates and lower weight gains, treatment and management costs, and mortality in heavily parasitized animals. Among the GI parasites that cause losses to the farming industry, the barber"s pole worm Haemonchus contortus is the predominant, blood-sucking, highly pathogenic, and economically important nematode that infects small ruminants. Here, we review the historical and recent literature on the ovine-parasite-environment interaction for H. contortus to bring avenues where advances in the understanding of these interactions is an indispensible to develop a cost effective control strategies as potential options for the haemonchosis control in sheep and the proper management of sheep in various production systems.

Next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies are now being employed to disclose the continually changing in the transcriptional profile of a biological sample in an approach called RNA sequencing (RNA-seq). Here, we review how gene expression technology is shifting from conventional to contemporary sequencing approaches. We also provide a snap shot about the application of RNA-seq technology for discovery and comparison of gene expression patterns in different organisms with a particular emphasis on the impact of Haemonchus contortus on ovine hosts. Furthermore, we presented steps in conducting RNA-seq experiment and how to validate the RNA-seq data. A future study investigating of Haemonchus and its ovine host using RNA-seq technology would be very interesting.

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