Morphological and molecular identification of zoonotic trematode metacercariae (Haplorchis taitui) in freshwater fish in Iran

Manshadi, Ali Reza Golchin

The intestinal trematode, Haplorchis taichui (Nishigori, 1924), is an important in public health that causes infection in humans and animals especially in Asia and in parts of Africa and the Americas. Haplorchis taitui metacercariae were found in the gills of Cyprinion macrostomus (Heckel) and Capoeta barroisi persica (Karaman) collected from the Shapour River. Morphological excysted metacercariae were identified as wet mounts under a stereomicroscope. Then, the samples were subjected to molecular analysis. The result showed that 69% of examined fish (n=30) were diagnosed infected with encysted metacercariae in gills. The mean intensity was 8.3±16.9 parasites per fish. The morphometrical values agree with the findings of other studies with the small differences and polymerase chain reaction product length and nucleotide sequence analysis of 18S ribosomal deoxyribonucleic acid gene showed a similarity of over 99% between the specimens and the Haplorchis taichui (Nishigori, 1924) recorded in GenBank.(AU)

1. Río Shapour
2. PCR
3. Shapour River
4. Heterophyidae
5. Trematoda