Molecular discrimination of East and Southeast Anatolian Region isolates of echinococcus granulosus

Cystic echinococcosis is an endemic parasitic zoonosis in Turkey. There is still no detailed molecular data about the strains of Echinococcus granulosus in Turkey. Dominant strain or strains have to be known for effective eradication and control programs in an endemic area. For this aim 205 hydatid cyst isolates contained 7 goats, 19 cattle and 179 sheep were collected from local abattoirs in Elazig, Malatya, Erzurum, Van, Diyarbakir and Sanliurfa provinces in the East and Southeast Anatolian regions of Turkey. In order to determine genetic variation, ribosomal ITS-1 (Internal Transcribed Spacer) gen regions of all isolates were analysed by PCR-RFLP (Polymerase Chain Reaction-Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism). Consequence of the same banding pattern of all isolates mitocondrial CO1 (cythochrome oxidase 1) gene of some selected isolates including 6 cattle, 4 sheep and 4 goat were sequenced. The result of this study demonstrated that all analysed isolates were belonging to the common sheep strain (G1).