Dr D Bartley
No more applications being accepted
Funded PhD Project (European/UK Students Only)
About the Project
Nematodirosis is a disease that is normally seen in young lambs. The signs of infection and outcome from those infections are often acute and, if left unchecked, can result in high mortalities. Acute disease is a consequence of very heavy larval challenge, developing larvae can cause some severe pathology and lambs may exhibit severe diarrhoea and dehydration before there are well established numbers of adult worms and high numbers of Nematodirus eggs appearing in faeces. Broad spectrum anthelmintics are widely used to control this parasite and many farmers in the United Kingdom opt to use a benzimidazole.
To date Nematodirus battus was believed to be refractory to developing the genetic mechanisms that have been associated with the presence of BZ resistance in other parasitic nematodes of sheep, namely a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) at codons 198 and 200 within isotype 1 of the β-tubulin gene. Recently an isolate was confirmed as being fenbendazole resistant; material from this isolate has been used to develop a pyrosequencing assay to identify polymorphisms of the β-tubulin gene and to compare them to the nucleotide polymorphisms of BZ-sensitive N. battus populations. The test requires to be streamlined to allow rapid assessment of the genotype of particular populations.
The project aims to:
• Develop and evaluate a high-throughput diagnostic molecular assay that can rapidly assess the genotype of a
N.battus population facilitating faster, more accurate and effective anthelmintic treatment.
• Generate a more accurate picture on the prevalence of BZ-resistance in N. battus populations from UK sheep.
• Identifiy potential risk factors that impact positively or negatively on the selection and dissemination of BZ-resistant
N. battus within the UK sheep populations.
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