Original Article Genetic Identification of Orientobilharzia turkestanicum from Sheep Isolates in Iran

Background: Adult worms of Orientobilharzia turkestanicum live in the portal veins, or intestinal veins of cattle, sheep, goat and many other mammals caus-ing orientobilharziasis. Orientobilharziasis causes significant economic losses to livestock industry of Iran. However, there is limited information about genotypes of O. turkestanicum in Iran. Methods: In this study, 30 isolates of O. turkestanicum obtained from sheep were characterized by sequencing mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (cox1) and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide dehydrogenase subunit 1 (nad1) gene. The mitochondrial cox1 and nad1 DNA were amplified by poly-merase chain reaction (PCR) and then sequenced and compared with O. turke-stanicum and that of other members of the Schistosomatidae available in Gen-BankTM. Results: Phylogenetic relationships between them were re-constructed using the maximum parsimony method. Phylogenetic analyses done in present stud