Abstract
The large stomach worm, Haemonchus, commonly known as the barber’s pole worm, is a blood sucking nematode found in the abomasa of small and large ruminants. Allele-specific amplification of the rDNA internal transcribed spacer-2 (ITS-2) sequences was performed from the total of 78 individual adult worms to screen Haemonchus placei at species level, which is the significant diagnostic tool to identify this major economically important species. Further full sequences analysis of the ITS-2 region revealed that there are 4 sites shows intraspecific variations at position 65, 111, 125 and 148. For instance this study is the first documented report of intraspecific genetic variations in the rDNA ITS-2 sequences of H. placei from cattle in Pakistan and the results shows that H. placei is genetically different from the isolates studied previously. However, detailed and large size samples strategy will be required to identify the co-infection and interspecies hybridization between H. placei and Haemonchus contortus in cattle.