Molecular characterization of Echinococcus granulosus isolates found in cattles, buffalos, sheep and goats in Afyonkarahisar

This study is executed in Afyonkarahisar (centre), Emirdağ, Bolvadin, Şuhut, İhsaniye and Dinar districts, in the purpose of determining the genotypes of Echinococcus granulosus cysts found in cattles, buffalos, sheep and goats in Afyonkarahisar between the dates March 2010 and April 2012. During the study, cysts are collected from internal organs of 258 animals consisting of 65 goats, 71 sheep, 119 cattles and 3 buffalos which were infected by hydatid cyst. In order to specify the Echinococcus granulosus genotypes found in the infected animals, DNA isolation is performed from germinal membrane and protoscolexes taken out of cysts. As a result DNA is obtained from 78 cysts (30 goats, 26 sheep, 19 cattles and 3 buffalos). PCR-RFLP is done utilizing the Hin6I and StuI restrictive enzymes from the nd1 gene area of the obtained DNA's. No discrepancy was observed in the isolates. In this study as a result of cox1 gene area analysis, the G1 strain known as the domestic sheep strain and 18 different haplotypes were found in all the isolates obtained from cattles, buffalos, sheep and goats. According to this in the city of Afyonkarahisar and its districts the most encountered haplotypes were TR_AF005 (%33.3) and TR_AF001 TR_AF003 (%20) in goats, TR_AF001 (73.1) in sheep, TR_AF001 (%21.1) in cattles and TR_AF013 (%100) in buffalos. As a result of sequencing analysis of ITS1 gene area of 77 samples in total, DNA strings of 462 bp lenght was obtained. In these DNA strings, differences in 16 separate base pairs were identified. To sum up; as a result of genetic analysis conducted on the nd1, cox1 and its1 genes of the isolates found in the cattles, buffalos, sheep and goats in the Afyonkarahisar Area, it was specified that all the isolates were G1 strains. Among these isolates, TR_AF001 haplotype was found to cause more infection in the inspected animal species. The reason of observing more mutation in the mitochondrial gene areas compared to nuclear DNA can be explained with the lack of repair mechanism in the mitochondria. It will be beneficial to consider this point in the necessary regional and national eradication, vaccination and medicine development studies in order to create more effective strategies to control the disease.