Parasitic diseases and mitigation of their effects play an important role in the health management of grazing livestock worldwide, with gastrointestinal strongylid nematodes being of prominent importance. These helminths typically occur in complex communities, often composed of species from numerous strongylid genera. Detecting the full diversity of strongylid species in non-invasively collected faecal samples is nearly impossible using conventional methods. In contrast, high-throughput amplicon sequencing (HTS) can effectively identify co-occurring species. During the four-year project, we collected and analysed faecal samples from beef cattle on >120 farms throughout the Czech Republic. Strongylids were the predominant nematodes, detected in 56% of the samples, but at a low level of infection. The apparent limitations in identifying strongylid taxa prompted this pilot study on a representative group of samples testing positive for strongylids using ITS-2 metabarcoding. The most widespread genera parasitizing Czech cattle were Ostertagia (O. ostertagi) and Oesophagostomum spp., followed by Trichostrongylus and Cooperia, while Bunostomum, Nematodirus and Chabertia were present only in a minority. As comparative material, 21 samples of cattle from the Danube Delta in Romania were used, which, in contrast, were dominated by Haemonchus placei. Finally, the effect of ivermectin treatment was tested at two Czech farms. After treatment with the anthelmintic, there was a shift in the strongylid communities, with a dominance of Cooperia and Ostertagia.

CEITEC VETUNI University of Veterinary Sciences Brno Palackého třída 1946 1 612 00 Brno Czech Republic

CEITEC VETUNI University of Veterinary Sciences Brno Palackého třída 1946 1 612 00 Brno Czech Republic; Department of Botany and Zoology Faculty of Science Masaryk University Kotlářská 2 611 37 Brno Czech Republic

CEITEC VETUNI University of Veterinary Sciences Brno Palackého třída 1946 1 612 00 Brno Czech Republic; Institute of Vertebrate Biology Czech Academy of Sciences Květná 8 603 00 Brno Czech Republic

Czech Beef Breeders Association Těšnov 65 17 110 00 Prague Czech Republic

Department of Botany and Zoology Faculty of Science Masaryk University Kotlářská 2 611 37 Brno Czech Republic

Department of Botany and Zoology Faculty of Science Masaryk University Kotlářská 2 611 37 Brno Czech Republic; Department of Veterinary Sciences Faculty of Agrobiology Food and Natural Resources Czech University of Life Sciences Prague Kamýcká 129 165 00 Prague Czech Republic; Institute of Parasitology Biology Centre Czech Academy of Sciences Branišovská 31 370 05 České Budějovice Czech Republic

Department of Parasitology and Parasitic Diseases Faculty of Veterinary Medicine University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Cluj Napoca Calea Mănăștur 3 5 400372 Cluj Napoca Romania

Department of Zoology Faculty of Science Charles University Viničná 7 128 44 Prague Czech Republic

State Veterinary Institute Jihlava Rantířovská 93 20 586 01 Jihlava Czech Republic

Citace poskytuje Crossref.org