Development of molecular detection methods of Bovicola ovis from sheep fleece

Abstract

The sheep body louse (Bovicola ovis) commonly referred to as sheep lice are small chewing ectoparasites of sheep. Infection results in significant economic costs to the Australian sheep industry due to reduced wool quality caused by chronic itching from sheep rubbing and biting fleece. Treatment relies on use of insecticides; however, resistance has developed against pyrethroid and other insect growth regulator lousicides. There is urgent need to develop cost-effective lice management to reduce the use of insecticides, with the application of insecticidal treatments only applied when an infestation is detected. However, the current detection method relies on fleece parting for detection of B. ovis which is highly dependent on the skill of the inspector, the number of sheep examined, and the prevalence and severity of the infestation. To improve B. ovis detection, a highly sensitive (5 × 10−8 ng/μL) and specific multiplex quantitative PCR which simultaneously detects sheep lice and sheep DNA was developed. In addition, a B. ovis loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay was developed for field use. The B. ovis LAMP (Bov-LAMP) assay was optimized to reliably detect B. ovis from wool samples down to 5 × 10−6 ng/μL, with time to positive (Tp) < 10 min. Both assays demonstrate high sensitivity and specificity, enabling rapid identification of B. ovis DNA from sheep fleece samples and have the capacity to be used for ongoing management and surveillance of B. ovis in Australian sheep flocks.

Morphological and molecular evidence reveals a new species of chewing louse Pancola ailurus n. sp. (Phthiraptera: Trichodectidae) from the endangered Chinese red panda Ailurus styani

“…With the assistants of molecular methods, it is easier to distinguish body lice and head lice that are similar in shape ( Fu et al, 2022 ). Additionally, the molecular method was also developed as a rapid detection of lice infestations ( Tran et al, 2022 ). Moreover, a large literature on both sucking and chewing lice added molecular information as supplementary data when describing new species ( Valim and Weckstein, 2013 ; Najer et al, 2014 ; Kolencik et al, 2018 ; Durden et al, 2019 ; Madrid et al, 2020 ).…”