The Surveillance of Gastrointestinal Parasitic Nematodes of Northwest Arkansas Dairy Cattle Using Traditional and Genetic Parasitological Identification Procedures
Traditional and genetic parasitological identification procedures were compared using naturaland artificial nematode parasite infections in Holstein steer calves. The traditional parasitological procedures measured fecal egg counts, coprocultures with subsequent larval collection and adult nematodes collected at necropsy. The genetic identification procedures measured ITS-2 sequences extracted from different stages of nematode development: raw feces, concentrated nematode eggs, third stage larvae and adults. The primary nematodes observed were Cooperia oncophora, Cooperia punctata and Ostertagia ostertagi. The traditional techniques were not significantly different from one another, while the genetic sequencing showed variation amongst the different procedures. The raw feces sequences showed the most variation, displaying a wide array of sequences from nematode species that were not necessarily found in the other genetic procedures. There was good correlation between the traditional and genetic procedures as a whole, leading to the conclusion that traditional parasitological identification techniques are sufficient for the identification of parasitic nematodes of cattle
