Frequency of Resistance to Benzimidazoles of <em>Haemonchus contortus</em> Helminths from Dairy Sheep, Goats, Cattle and Buffaloes in Greece
Konstantinos Arsenopoulos,
Styliani Minoudi,
Isaia Symeonidou,
Alexandros Triantafyllidis,
Angeliki I. Katsafadou,
Daphne T. Lianou,
George C. Fthenakis,
Elias Papadopoulos
Affiliations
Konstantinos Arsenopoulos
Laboratory of Parasitology and Parasitic Diseases, School of Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
Styliani Minoudi
Laboratory of Genetics, Development and Molecular Biology, School of Biology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
Isaia Symeonidou
Laboratory of Parasitology and Parasitic Diseases, School of Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
Alexandros Triantafyllidis
Laboratory of Genetics, Development and Molecular Biology, School of Biology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
Angeliki I. Katsafadou
Veterinary Faculty, University of Thessaly, 43100 Karditsa, Greece
Daphne T. Lianou
Veterinary Faculty, University of Thessaly, 43100 Karditsa, Greece
George C. Fthenakis
Veterinary Faculty, University of Thessaly, 43100 Karditsa, Greece
Elias Papadopoulos
Laboratory of Parasitology and Parasitic Diseases, School of Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
The study investigated the presence of resistance to benzimidazoles in Haemonchus contortus helminths from ruminant species in Greece through the detection of the Phe/Tyr polymorphism in the amino acid at position 200 of the β-tubulin protein. In total, 288 adult female H. contortus helminths collected from the abomasum of various ruminant animals in Greece were tested. Of these, 96 were collected from sheep, 96 from goats, 48 from cattle, and 48 from buffaloes. The frequencies of the homozygous and heterozygous resistant genotypes at the position 200 of the β-tubulin gene of helminths recovered from sheep were 96.9% and 3.1%, respectively. The frequencies of the homozygous and heterozygous resistant genotypes, respectively, were 100.0% and 0.0% in helminths from goats, 25.0% and 75.0% in helminths from cattle and 8.3% and 91.7% in helminths from buffaloes. In all parasitic populations, no homozygous susceptible genotypes were detected. The present study highlighted, for the first time, the emergence of benzimidazole-resistant H. contortus in goats, cattle, and buffaloes in Greece, using an allele-specific PCR. It is postulated that benzimidazole-resistant alleles were transferred from sheep or goats to cattle and buffaloes at the commonly grazing pastures in Greece.
