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The article Received 11 August 2016
Revised 11 September 2016
Accepted 16 September 2016
PublishYak is an iconic symbol of Tibet and high altitudes of Northeast India. It is highly cherished for milk,
meat, and skin. However, yaks suffer drastic change in milk production, weight loss, etc, when infested
by parasites. Among them, infestation by leeches is a serious problem in the Himalayan belt of
Northeast India. The parasite feeds on blood externally or from body orifices, like nasopharynx, oral, rectum,
etc. But there has been limited data about the leech species infesting the yak in that region
because of the difficulties in morphological identification due to plasticity of the body, changes in
shape, and surface structure and thus, warrants for the molecular characterization of leech. In anticipation,
this study would be influential in proper identification of leech species infesting yak track and also
helpful in inventorying of leech species in Northeast India. Here, we investigated, through combined
approach of molecular markers and morphological parameters for the identification of leech species
infesting yak. The DNA sequences of COI barcode fragment, 18S and 28S rDNA, were analyzed for species
identification. The generated sequences were subjected to similarity match in global database and
analyzed further through Neighbour-Joining, K2P distance based as well as ML approach. Among the
three markers, only COI was successful in delineating species whereas the 18S and 28S failed to delineate
the species. Our study confirmed the presence of the species from genus Hirudinaria, Haemadipsa,
Whitmania, and one species Myxobdella annandalae, which has not been previously reported from this
region.Department of Biotechnology, Government of Indi
Genetic assessment of leech species from yak (<i>Bos grunniens</i>) in the tract of Northeast India
<p>Yak is an iconic symbol of Tibet and high altitudes of Northeast India. It is highly cherished for milk, meat, and skin. However, yaks suffer drastic change in milk production, weight loss, etc, when infested by parasites. Among them, infestation by leeches is a serious problem in the Himalayan belt of Northeast India. The parasite feeds on blood externally or from body orifices, like nasopharynx, oral, rectum, etc. But there has been limited data about the leech species infesting the yak in that region because of the difficulties in morphological identification due to plasticity of the body, changes in shape, and surface structure and thus, warrants for the molecular characterization of leech. In anticipation, this study would be influential in proper identification of leech species infesting yak track and also helpful in inventorying of leech species in Northeast India. Here, we investigated, through combined approach of molecular markers and morphological parameters for the identification of leech species infesting yak. The DNA sequences of <i>COI</i> barcode fragment, <i>18S</i> and <i>28S rDNA,</i> were analyzed for species identification. The generated sequences were subjected to similarity match in global database and analyzed further through Neighbour-Joining, K2P distance based as well as ML approach. Among the three markers, only <i>COI</i> was successful in delineating species whereas the <i>18S</i> and <i>28S</i> failed to delineate the species. Our study confirmed the presence of the species from genus <i>Hirudinaria, Haemadipsa</i>, <i>Whitmania,</i> and one species <i>Myxobdella annandalae,</i> which has not been previously reported from this region.</p