Population dynamics of the liver fluke, Fasciola hepatica: the effect of time and spatial separation on the genetic diversity of fluke populations in the Netherlands

Abstract

An evaluation of the genetic diversity within Fasciola hepatica (liver fluke) may provide an insight into its potential to respond to environmental changes, such as anthelmintic use or climate change. In this study, we determined the mitochondrial DNA haplotypes of > 400 flukes from 29 individual cattle, from 2 farms in the Netherlands, as an exemplar of fasciolosis in a European context. Analysis of this dataset has provided us with a measure of the genetic variation within infrapopulations (individual hosts) and the diversity between infrapopulations within a herd of cattle. Temporal sampling from one farm allowed for the measurement of the stability of genetic variation at a single location, whilst the comparison between the two farms provided information on the variation in relation to distance and previous anthelmintic regimes. We showed that the liver fluke population in this region is predominantly linked to 2 distinct clades. Individual infrapopulations contain a leptokurtic distribution of genetically diverse flukes. The haplotypes present on a farm have been shown to change significantly over a relatively short time-period.

Low Genetic Diversity in Wide-Spread Eurasian Liver Fluke Opisthorchis felineus Suggests Special Demographic History of This Trematode Species

“…Notably, European F. hepatica populations showed extensive genetic mtDNA diversity even in local studies (Ireland and the Netherlands) [37,38]. Partial sequences of mitochondrial genes nad1 and cox1 revealed 4.1 and 2.3% sequence variation, respectively, in flukes sampled across Eastern Europe [40].…”

“…Over the past few years, many efforts focused on studying the population genetic structure and heterogeneity of important trematode species including Schistosoma mansoni [25][26][27][28][29][30], S. japonicum [31][32][33], Paragonimus westermani [34,35], Fasciola hepatica [36][37][38][39][40], F. magnum [41] Echinostoma sp. [42,43].…”

Issues Associated with Genetic Diversity Studies of the Liver Fluke, Fasciola Heptica (Platyhelminthes, Digenea, Fasciolidae)

“…The most valuable and most common mitochondrial genes were presented in Section 3.1.2. Only three studies Walker et al, 2011;Kantzoura et al, 2011) concerned different but found to be most polymorphic fragments from mtDNA of F. hepatica (consisted from partial cox3 (cytochrome c oxidase 3) gene, tRNA-His, partial cob (cytochrome B) gene). Again predominance of the researches refers to single geographic isolates of F. hepatica but not forming a worldwide picture of populational groups' distribution.…”

“…Choosing "plastic"fragments of liver fluke mitochondrion means choosing the most informative and adequate markers for obtaining a complete view on genetic diversity of F. hepatica in the world. Nevertheless only three available in bibliographic data bases studies could give such a picture (Semyenova et al, 2006;Teofanova et al, 2011;Walker et al, 2011). One of them is genetic diversity investigation of liver fluke populations from Eastern Europe .…”

Climate change on the forecasted risk of bovine fasciolosis in Espírito Santo state, Brazil

“…In this context, Ollerenshaw and Rowlands (1959) were the first researchers to develop a prediction model for the incidence of Fasciola hepatica based on meteorological data. Since that time, several studies using modeling to predict the incidence F. hepatica have been conducted to develop a system for predicting the disease in space and time (HOPE-CAWDERY et al, 1981;DE WAAL et al, 2007;KENYON et al, 2009;MAS-COMA et al, 2009;MCCANN et al, 2010;FOX et al, 2011;WALKER et al, 2011;FOX et al, 2012).…”