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

肝片吸虫，通常被称为“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，在欧洲许多地区，包括英国和北爱尔兰（NI）都有报道。片形吸虫病作为一种食源性疾病，是由于食用传染性幼虫造成的，这大大降低了全球畜牧业的能力和效率。据估计，片吸虫病每年在英国造成1.1亿英镑的经济损失，而整个欧洲的影响要大得多，达到5.24亿英镑。尽管它很重要，但缺乏与肝吸虫相关的基本生态学知识。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不可或缺的一部分。这种知识的缺乏限制了成功评估和对抗威胁以提高动物福利和生产力的努力。目前尚不清楚是什么因素导致了蠕虫的存在和流行，但可能的因素包括气候变化、中间蜗牛宿主竞争者之间物种间竞争的减少、导致抗性的驱虫药使用的变化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。本项目将通过组建跨学科团队，研究物种多样性在疾病传播中的作用。该团队将提高研究能力和能力，重点关注对英国农业重要的寄生虫。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；并将接受来自学术界、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合作有着悠久的历史。我们已经从环境（土壤）中分离出DNA，这被称为或eDNA，来自有蠕虫病史的农场。虽然目前正在使用特定的分析方法来寻找疑似已知的蠕虫和蜗牛物种的存在，但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，我们将进行以下活动-使用从北爱尔兰受蠕虫感染的农场获得的下一代dna测序，以表征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药（抗寄生虫药物）的使用相关。最后，形成一个研究网络，使用新的测序策略来评估英国农业场所的“生物多样性健康”，作为与蠕虫传播相关的风险因素。这些技术的发展将产生可用于未来农业管理的可操作数据。此外，我们将证明，当用分子方法分析环境样本以确定物种多样性时，可以回答生态问题。考虑到寄生虫学、生态学和生物多样性的观点，可以管理入侵物种检测、食品/水卫生和生物安全（水中的驱虫药或细菌/病毒暴发）。

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.