Benzimidazole resistance within red deer, roe deer and sheep populations within a joint habitat in Hungary

Abstract

The anthelmintic resistance of gastrointestinal nematodes is one of the most important, economic risk factors in grazing ruminant systems, all over the world. We have infinitesimal information about the resistance status of nematodes in deer species. Our aim was to determine the presence of BZ resistance in the generalist worm, Haemonchus contortus in pastured sheep and free ranging red and roe deer by RFLP-PCR method based on the detection Phe200Tyr single nucleotide polymorphism. By investigation of 70 worms from each host species, the homozygous susceptible genotype was the most representative in the red deer (100%), the homozygous resistant genotype was most prevalent in the sheep (68.6%) and moderate in the roe deer (17.1%), while the heterozygous genotype was observed in equal proportion in the sheep and roe deer (28.6%). Our results suggest that overlapping habitats of sheep flocks and roe deer could contribute to the occurrence and spread of resistant allele within wildlife.