Bacterial profiling of Haemonchus contortus gut microbiome infecting Dohne Merino sheep in South Africa

Abstract

A metagenomic approach was used to study the gut microbiome of Haemonchus contortus feld strains and that of its predilection site, the abomasum of Dohne Merino sheep. The abomasum contents and H. contortus were collected from 10 naturally infected Dohne Merino sheep. The H. contortus specimens were classifed and sexually diferentiated using morphometric characters and was further confrmed through molecular identifcation. We investigated diferences and similarities between the bacterial composition of the adult male and female H. contortus gut microbiomes, which were both dominated by bacteria from the Escherichia, Shigella, Vibrio and Halomonas genera. Major abundance variations were identifed between the shared adult male and female H. contortus microbiomes. The results also revealed that Succiniclasticum, Rikenellaceae RC9 gut group and Candidatus Saccharimonas were the predominant genera in the Dohne Merino abomasum. This study provides insight into the highly diverse bacterial composition of the H. contortus gut microbiome and the Dohne Merino abomasum which needs to be studied further to explore the complex interactions of diferent gastrointestinal nematode microbiomes with the host.