Molecular Evidence of Potential Albendazole-Resistance in Teladorsagia circumcincta in Iraqi Sheep

Gastrointestinal nematodes infection is one of the major health problems in the livestock industry in many parts of the world and Iraq. Anthelmintic drugs are heavily relied upon to control them so that repeated use lead to development of anthelmintic resistance. The present study was carried out to detect the albendazole-resistance in Teladorsagia circumcincta from Iraqi sheep in Soran district, Kurdistan Region. A total of 140 sheep abomasa were randomly collected. Allele-specific PCR (ASP) was used to investigate the frequency of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in codon 200 of isotype I β-tubulin gene. The frequency of the homozygous susceptible (SS), homozygous resistant (rr) and heterozygous susceptible (Sr) were 60.9%, 0.0% and 39.1% in the examined T. circumcincta isolates, respectively. From the results of the present study, it was concluded that T. circumcincta was sensitive to albendazole however; the presence of resistance allele in some populations may lead to the emergence of resistant individuals in the region.