Institute of Parasitology
Topic
Využitie metódy eDNA metabarkódovania na objasnenie aktuálneho rozšírenia vybraných motolíc (Trematoda) v strednej Európe.
PhD. program
Parasitic Diseases of Animals, daily form
Year of admission
2025
Name of the supervisor
MVDr. Daniel Barčák, PhD.
Contact:
Receiving school
University of Veterinary Medicine and Pharmacy in Košice
Annotation
The dissertation thesis investigates current distribution of flukes that cause human and fish diseases in central Europe by a non-invasive investigation of parasitic DNA in water. The target parasites are i) avian schistosomes causing cercarial dermatitis of swimmers, ii) heterophyids and opithorchiids as agents of human intestinal and liver trematodoses, and iii) flukes of the genera Diplostomum, Posthodiplostomum a Sanguinicola as pathogens of freshwater fishes. The environmental DNA will be extracted from water samples collected in recreational lakes or fish farms. The presence of DNA of target parasites in these samples will be investigated by PCR amplification of short pieces of DNA commonly used for species identification followed by Next-Generation sequencing of pooled PCR products and a comparison of the sequences with data in GenBank database. The effectivity of this non-invasive method will be compared with results of traditional approaches that involve parasitological dissection of hosts, i.e. aquatic snails and fishes and a collection of larval stages of flukes (cercariae and metacercariae). The results of the thesis broaden knowledge about applicability of eDNA screening and exploit its untapped potential in parasitology.