Molecular Characterization and Phylogenetic Analysis of Fasciola gigantica in Iraqi Sheep Using ITS1

Fasciolosis is a worldwide disease of man and animals result in huge economic losses. The objective of this study was to characterize for the first time Fasciola gigantica in Iraq employing molecular approaches. In this work, 65 adult fasciola worms were isolated from sheep liver of different age and both sex during May-August 2017, in Kirkuk city, Iraq. Molecular analysis conducted on the internal transcribed spacer 1 to characterize the species of parasite depending on the sequence analysis. Results reveal that the isolated worms were Fasciola gigantica and they have a great similarity, up to 100%, compared with other global isolates. In addition, results documented a single nucleotide polymorphism, at the 276th nucleotide of the studied fragment, and the isolates of our project highly related to various global isolates by using phylogenetic tree analysis. In conclusion,our isolates are faithfully analogous to global isolates with common SNP at 276th nucleotide, and ITS1 gene considers a novel marker in identifying Fasciola gigantica and study the relation with other isolates.