Molecular Characterization of Fasciola spp. among Slaughtered Cattle in Gombe Central Abattoir, Gombe State

Abstract

Fascioliasis, caused by Fasciola hepatica and Fasciola gigantica, is a zoonotic parasitic disease with profound economic and public health impacts. Traditional morphological identification of Fasciola spp. is limited in distinguishing closely related species and hybrids, necessitating molecular approaches. This study investigates the molecular diversity of Fasciola spp. from slaughtered cattle in Gombe. Adult flukes were collected from infected cattle livers and genomic DNA was extracted and subjected to PCR amplification targeting internal transcribe spacer (ITS-2) and mitochondrial COI gene regions. Amplicons were sequenced, aligned, and analyzed phylogenetically. Results revealed the presence of both F. hepatica and F. gigantica in the study areas. Analysis of the overall genetic sequence data showed that 93.3% of the sequences of Fasciola isolates were F. gigantica, while 6.6.7% were F. hepatica. Blast searches within the NCBI database revealed similarity of 99.60% similarity with F. hepatica and between 94-100 with F. gigantica with deposited sequences in the GenBank database from African countries of Egypt, Kenya, Libya, Uganda, Algeria and from Turkey. The phylogenetic tree constructed based upon the ITS-2 and COX 1 sequences revealed a close relationship with isolates of F. gigantica from Niger, Egypt and Nigeria, while F. hepatica isolate with Iran. These findings highlight the molecular complexity of fascioliasis in Gombe and underscore the need for molecular surveillance to support control programs.