Improved understanding of species diversity through molecular ecology, provides better management strategies for UK agriculture and helminth diseases

肝片形吸虫，俗称“温带肝吸虫”，是一个世界性的农业问题。被称为片形吸虫病的感染主要损害反刍动物的生产，并且在欧洲的许多地区包括英国和北方爱尔兰（NI）都有报道。肝片吸虫病是一种食源性疾病，由食用感染性幼虫引起，极大地降低了全球畜牧业的产能和效率。据估计，片形吸虫病在英国每年造成1.1亿英镑的经济损失，而在整个欧洲的影响要大得多，为5.24亿英镑。尽管它的重要性，但缺乏与肝吸虫相关的基本生态知识。这包括它们的蜗牛中间宿主的多样性和分布，这是寄生虫生命周期的组成部分。这种知识的缺乏限制了成功评估和应对威胁以改善动物福利和生产力的努力。目前还不清楚是什么因素导致蠕虫的存在和流行增加，但候选人包括气候变化，中间蜗牛宿主竞争对手之间的物种间竞争减少，驱虫剂使用的变化导致耐药性，以及高水平的动物运动。了解蠕虫及其蜗牛宿主的生物多样性是了解疾病传播生态学的关键。该项目将通过建立跨学科团队来调查物种生物多样性对疾病传播的作用。该团队将提高对英国农业重要的蠕虫寄生虫的研究能力和能力。利用分子生态学方法，该项目将汇集寄生虫学、分子生物学和计算生物学、生态学和农业管理方面的专业知识;并将获得学术界、政府和行业合作伙伴的投入。昆士兰大学生物科学学院与农民有着悠久的合作历史。我们已经从环境（土壤）中分离出DNA，称为eDNA，来自有蠕虫病史的农场。在特定的检测方法被用来寻找疑似已知蠕虫和蜗牛物种的同时，我们将使用新技术来捕捉这些地点生物多样性的全貌。在这个项目中，我们将进行这些活动-使用下一代测序从北方爱尔兰蠕虫感染的农场获得的eDNA，以确定寄生虫和蜗牛宿主的生物多样性。确定蠕虫和蜗牛的生物多样性是否与驱虫剂（抗寄生虫药物）的使用相关。最后，形成一个研究网络，使用新的测序策略，以评估英国农业网站的“生物多样性健康”的风险因素与蠕虫transmission.The这些技术的发展将导致可操作的数据，可以应用于未来的农业管理。此外，我们将证明，环境样品，当用分子方法分析，以确定物种的生物多样性可以回答生态问题。从寄生虫学、生态学和生物多样性的角度考虑，可以对入侵物种检测、食品/水卫生和生物安全（水中的驱虫剂或细菌/病毒爆发）进行管理。

Fasciola hepatica, usually termed "the temperate liver fluke", is a worldwide problem for agriculture. Infections known as fasciolosis, primarily damage ruminant production, and have been reported across many regions of Europe including the UK and Northern Ireland (NI). Fasciolosis as a food-borne disease, results from the consumption of the infective larvae, which greatly reduces global livestock capacity and efficiency. It is estimated that fascioliasis causes annual economic losses in the UK of £110 million, while across Europe the impact is considerably larger, at £524 million.Despite its importance, there is a lack of basic ecological knowledge associated with liver fluke. This includes the diversity and distribution of their snail intermediate hosts integral to the parasite lifecycle. This lack of knowledge limits efforts to successfully assess and combat threats in order to improve animal welfare and productivity. It is unclear what factors drive increased helminth presence and prevalence, but candidates include climate change, decreased interspecies competition among competitors of the intermediate snail host, changes in anthelmintic usage leading to resistance, and high levels of animal movements. Understanding the biodiversity of the helminth and their snail host(s) is key for understanding the ecology of disease transmission. This project will investigate the role of species biodiversity for disease transmission by building an interdisciplinary team. This team will increase research capability and capacity focused on helminth parasites important to UK agriculture. Using a molecular ecology approach, this project will bring together expertise in parasitology, molecular biology and computational biology, ecology, and agricultural management; and will receive input from academic, government and industry partners. The School of Biological Sciences at QUB, has a long history of collaboration with farmers. We have already isolated DNA from the environment (soil), which is known as or eDNA, from farms with a history of helminth disease. While specific assays are being used to look for the presence of suspected known helminth and snail species, we will used new technologies to capture the complete picture of biodiversity at these sites.In this project we will undertake these activities- Use next generation sequencing from eDNA obtained from helminth infected farms in Northern Ireland, to characterise parasite and snail host biodiversity. Determine if helminth and snail biodiversity is correlated with anthelmintic (anti-parasite drug) usage. Lastly, form a research network which uses new sequencing strategies to assess UK agriculture sites for "biodiversity health" as risk factors associated with helminth transmission.The development of these techniques will lead to actionable data that can be applied to the future management of agriculture. Furthermore we will demonstrate that environmental samples, when analysed by molecular methods to determine species biodiversity can answer ecological questions. In considering parasitological, ecological and biodiversity perspectives, invasive species detection, food/water hygiene and biosecurity (anthelmintics in water or bacterial/viral outbreaks) can be managed.