Trichostrongylus nematodes are highly prevalent and considered as gastrointestinal parasite pathogens among ruminants with a worldwide distribution [1, 2]. Trichostrongylus spp. usually infect human by ingesting the infective-stage larvae [1]. Clinical symptoms of humans are mild, though in some patients gastrointestinal signs and eosinophilia may occur [3, 4]. These nematodes are major health challenges, causing reduced animal production or even death of the infected animal in severe infection, as well as economic burden with the cost of treatment, considered as a problem especially in developing countries [5, 6]. Several species of the parasite have been reported from herbivores with approximately 12 species identified in humans [2, 7]. Also, the frequency of Trichostrongylus from human and animal hosts has been repeatedly reported in Iran [8, 9, 10, 11]. Ruminant infection was reported from Isfahan, Khuzestan, Mazandaran, Kermanshah, Hormozgan and West Azerbaijan provinces, with human infections found in Khuzestan, Isfahan, Tehran, Hormozgan, Kermanshah, Mazandaran, Guilan, Sistan & Baluchestan, and West Azerbaijan provinces [2, 12, 13, 14, 15].
Identification of the parasite species could be useful in preventing and controlling the disease. According to the morphological futures reported in previous studies from Iran, several species of nematodes have been identified in human including T. orientalis, T. vitrinus, T. axei, T. colubriformis, T. probolurus, T. skrjabini, T. capricola, and T. lerouxi [8, 9, 14]. In recent years, some studies clarified the human infections with T. vitrinus, T. axei, T. colubriformis and T. longispicularis species in endemic areas of northern Iran with T. colubriformis considered as a predominant species [2, 12, 16, 17]. Infection with various species of Trichostrongylus including T. colubriformis [10, 11, 14, 18, 19], T. vitrinus [10, 11, 14, 18, 19], T. axei [14], T. capricola [10, 14], T. probolurus [10, 11, 14, 18, 19], T. longispicularis [10], T. orientalis [14], T. lerouxi [20], T. skrjabini [14] and T. hamatus [18] were reported in different herbivores such as sheep [10, 11, 14], goat [10, 14], cattle [10, 14], buffalo [10, 14] and camel [18, 19] in most parts of Iran. The predominant species of Trichostrongylus among different herbivores are T. colubriformis, T. vitrinus, and T. axei found in most parts of the country [14]. Also, T. colubriformis, T. vitrines, and T. axei were common species among different herbivores in most parts of the country [14].
There is a tremendous diversity of the nematodes in the country [10, 21] however the molecular approaches, currently available and easily applicable, could accurately identify these species. Molecular studies based on internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and 28S regions of ribosomal DNA were applied for genetic variation and phylogenetic analysis of Trichostrongylina [16, 22, 23, 24]. Frequently, many studies focus on ITS2 for analysis of genetic variation, species detection, and phylogenetic relationships [2, 16, 21]. Mitochondrial (mt) genomes could present valuable information. Mt genomes are conserved and present large amounts of sequence data in the organisms, therefore mtDNA are used for evolutionary analyses, taxonomy, population genetics, and systematics studies [25, 26, 27]. There are few studies that have investigated the mitochondrial gene of Trichostrongylidae family, in which the mtDNA of the species of Marshallagia marshalli, Haemonchus placei, Haemonchus contortus, T. vitrinus, T. axei, Ostertagia trifurcate, and Teladorsagia circumcincta were evaluated for phylogenetic relationship and species identification [25, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33]. Taxonomy studies of the nematodes based on sequences of coding mitochondrial genes are more accurate than non-coding ribosomal genes. Meanwhile, the mitochondrial genomes are considered as suitable markers for population evolution studies [31, 32], while the studies targeting the mtDNA for identification of Trichostrongylidae are very limited worldwide with even no single study on mitochondrial gene of the nematodes reported from Iran, so, the present study focused on molecular phylogenetic analysis based on cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (Cox1) mitochondrial gene of Trichostrongylus species in northern Iran.