New tools for sustainable control of liver fluke in ruminants

食品类动物被多种寄生虫感染，严重危害了它们的健康和生产力。肝片吸虫是英国许多地区最常见和高致病性的牛羊寄生虫之一。对这种寄生虫的控制包括用杀吸虫的药物对反刍动物进行战略性治疗，指导方法是根据气候数据预测肝吸虫感染的风险。然而，对最广泛使用的杀吸虫药物产生了抗药性，对可持续的肝吸虫控制构成了严重威胁。同时，目前的吸虫预测是基于旧的数据，可用于验证新模型的信息有限，因此需要新的方法来跟踪吸虫种群。本博士项目旨在生成并使用来自肝吸虫的基因组数据来开发大量针对这种寄生虫的新型遗传标记。这些标记将被用来分析英国不同地理位置的绵羊和牛的肝吸虫种群结构的季节性变化，为疾病负担、感染传播以及杀吸虫剂耐药性的出现和传播的可能性提供重要的见解。此外，还将利用项目期间收集的数据，包括寄生虫基因数据，开发和测试新的“吸虫预测”模型。这将能够更好地预测肝吸虫感染可能发生的时间和地点，从而改善和可持续地控制这种寄生虫，并最终改善牲畜的健康和生产力。

Food producing animals are infected by multiple species of parasites, which severely compromise their health and productivity. The liver fluke Fasciola hepatica is amongst the most common and highly pathogenic parasites of cattle and sheep in many parts of the UK. Control of this parasite involves strategic treatment of ruminants with flukicides (drugs which kill flukes), guided by "fluke forecasts" which predict risk of liver fluke infection based on climate data. However, resistance is emerging to the most widely used flukicide, posing a severe threat to sustainable liver fluke control. Meanwhile, current fluke forecasts are based on old data and there is limited information available to validate new models, so new methods of tracking fluke populations are needed.This PhD project aims to generate and use genomic data from liver fluke to develop a large panel of novel genetic markers for this parasite. These markers will be used to analyse seasonal variations in liver fluke population structure in sheep and cattle in different geographical locations in the UK, providing important insights into disease burden, infection transmission and the potential for emergence and spread of flukicide resistance. In addition, new "fluke forecasting" models will be developed and tested using data collected during the project, including parasite genetic data. This will enable better predictions of when and where liver fluke infection is likely to occur, leading to improved and sustainable control of this parasite, and ultimately better livestock health and productivity.