Haemonchus contortus genome sequencing-sc-2010-08-19
Haemonchus contortus genome sequencing
Haemonchus contortus is a highly pathogenic parasitic nematode of that can infect a large number of wild and domesticated ruminant species and is the most economically important parasite of sheep and goats worldwide. Although originally a tropical parasite, it has been disseminated around the world by livestock movement and can now be found as far north as the arctic circle. Adult worms are blood feeders that reside in the abomasum (stomach) and are approximately 2cm in length when mature. They are dioecious with single females typically producing several thousand eggs per day which pass out of the host in faeces and develop to infective larvae on the pasture.   H. contortus is a member of the superfamily trichostrongyloidea (Strongylida) which contains most of the economically important parasitic nematodes of grazing livestock. These parasites cost the global livestock industry billions of dollars per annum in lost production and drug costs. Resistance to all the major anthelmintic classes is now common worldwide often leading to failure of treatment and control. H. contortus is a close relative of the human hookworm species and belongs to the nearest phylogenetic group of parasites to the free-living model nematode Caenorhabditis elegans . This makes it an important model of parasitic nematode biology that is commonly used for experimental studies.   . This data is part of a pre-publication release. For information on the proper use of pre-publication data shared by the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (including details of any publication moratoria), please see http://www.sanger.ac.uk/datasharing/
Project to produce a reference quality genome for the intestinal nematode model organism Haemonchus contortus