ACTA VETERINARIA ET ZOOTECHNICA SINICA ›› 2017, Vol. 48 ›› Issue (11): 2181-2188.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2017.11.020

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Morphological and Molecular Identification of Melophagus ovinus

DUAN De-yong1,2,3, WANG Ya-qin1,3, CHENG Tian-yin1,3*   

  1. 1. College of Veterinary Medicine, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha 410128, China;
    2. College of Oriental Science & Technology, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha 410128, China;
    3. Hunan Co-Innovation Center of Animal Production Safety, Changsha 410128, China
  • Received:2017-05-22 Online:2017-11-23 Published:2017-11-23

Abstract:

Melophagus ovinus is one of the most common and economically important blood-feeding ectoparasites on sheep, but no exhaustive information on the morphology of M. ovinus. The aim of this study was to provide the basis for rapid and accurate identify this parasite. The morphological characteristics of M. ovinus were observed by the super depth of field three-dimensional microscope system and scanning electron microscope, and the molecular identification was also performed by analyzing the gene sequence of 18S rRNA. The results showed that M. ovinus was an entirely wingless brown fly, no halteres. The head was short and broad flat. M. ovinus had piercing-sucking mouthparts, reduced compound eyes and thumbnail antennae, no ocellus. The chest was not segmented, had three pairs of legs and four pairs of stegmas, and the tibial ends have large claws. The abdomen was wide and ameristic, with an oval or round shape. The abdomens of M. ovinus differ depending on the sex:the female's abdomen was big, round, and invaginated in the back; the male's abdomen was small, round, and embossed in the back. The entire surface of the body had dense setae. The sequencing result of 18S rRNA had 99.59% similarity with the published sequences in GenBank. These findings suggested that the samples obtained from the sheep bred in the city of Jiuquan in Gansu Province were M. ovinus, and this parasite had easily recognizable morphological characteristics.

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