Fasciola hepatica in Sardegna: caratterizzazione fenotipica, valutazione dell’andamento climatico, della stagionalità e diffusione della parassitosi.

Fascioliasis is a widely distributed parasitic disease caused by the two trematode speciesFasciola hepaticaandFasciola gigantica. Fascioliasis is responsible for high losses in livestock productions.The dependence ofF. hepaticaand its intermediate hosts from weather factors, indicate that climate changes may affect the evolution of this disease.F. hepaticais currently the only species of Fasciolidae present in Sardinia. Intermediate hosts belong to the Lymnaea species and Lymnaea truncatula is the main intermediate host.Sardinia, due to its geographical position, can represent a model for the study of fascioliasis transmission and evolution throughout the Mediterranean area.This study describes for the first time the phenotypic characterization of adults ofF. hepaticasampled from sheep and cattle from Sardinia, through a computerized image analysis system (CIAS) used for the differentiation of both species. The results compared with standard populations ofF. hepatica(from South America and Europe) andF. gigantica(from Egypt for sheep and Burkina Faso for cattle), show that in Sardinia there are noF. giganticaor hybrid forms. The analysis of the meteorological data of the last thirty years (1988-2017) show that Sardinia is a climatically heterogeneous region with a seasonality of transmission ofF. hepatica(from October to April). The data analysis also allowed us to highlight a possible climatic change especially in the south-western area of Sardinia.