title: Genetic Identification of Orientobilharzia turkestanicum from Sheep Isolates in Iran.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Adult worms of Orientobilharzia turkestanicum live in the portal veins, or intestinal veins of cattle, sheep, goat and many other mammals causing 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 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and then sequenced and compared with O. turkestanicum and that of other members of the Schistosomatidae available in Gen-Bank(™).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Phylogenetic relationships between them were re-constructed using the maximum parsimony method. Phylogenetic analyses done in present study placed O. turkestanicum within the Schistosoma genus, and indicates that O. turkestanicum was phylogenetically closer to the African schistosome group than to the Asian schistosome group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Comparison of nad1 and cox1 sequences of O. turkestanicum obtained in this study with corresponding sequences available in Genbank(™) revealed some sequence variations and provided evidence for presence of microvarients in Iran.
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Cellular and Molecular Biology, Islamic Azad University Babol-Branch, Iran.
authors.forename: Reza
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tabaripour
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Veterinary Parasitology, Islamic Azad University Babol-Branch, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad Reza
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Youssefi
authors.affiliation: Young Researchers Club, Islamic Azad University, Babol Branch, Babol, Iran.
authors.forename: Rabeeh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tabaripour
keywords: Iran; Orientobilharzia turkestanicum; Sheep