Unexpected occurrence of Haemonchus placei in cattle in southern Western Australia

Haemonchus placei is an abomasal parasite of cattle, primarily in tropical and subtropical areas of the world. In Australia, this nematode can be extremely pathogenic in summer rainfall areas, particularly in the hot, sub-tropical Kimberley region, in the far north of the state of Western Australia (WA). Although cattle are occasionally transferred to southern parts of WA, it was believed that H. placei did not occur in southern regions of WA, as it is less cold-adapted than Haemonchus contortus, and the free-living stages would not develop during the cold winter and dry summer periods. Here, we show that, although H. contortus is found in cattle in the temperate southern region of WA, it appears that H. placei also occurs in southern WA. While investigating the prevalence of anthelmintic resistance in nematodes of cattle in WA, the existence of H. placei was suspected on a range of participating farms, following the morphological examination of third-stage larvae cultured from faeces, and of adult worms recovered from sheep experimentally infected with these larvae. Genomic DNAs from individual worms as well as eggs from pooled faecal samples from seven farms in southern WA were subjected to PCR-based mutation scanning and sequence analyses of the second internal transcribed spacer (ITS-2) of nuclear ribosomal DNA. The results showed that both H. contortus and H. placei were harboured by cattle. This first record of H. placei in cattle in southern WA raises questions as to the prevalence and distribution of this parasite in other temperate and cool climatic regions of Australia. Although clinical disease due to H. placei has not yet been seen in southern WA, global, climatic trends might suggest an increased importance of this parasite in the longer term.