Morphological differences and molecular phylogenetic relationship of two tapeworm species, Moniezia expansa and Moniezia benedeni, collected from domestic ruminants in northern Vietnam.

Moniezia expansa and M. benedeni are two common tapeworm species of domestic ruminants over the world. However, their morphological and molecular data are available for limited specimens from a few countries. In the present study, we compared morphological characteristics of these two species collected from goats and cattle in northern Vietnam and analyzed their phylogenetic relationship based on the 5.8S and second internal transcribed spacer (ITS2) of nuclear ribosomal DNA and the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene (cox1). The two species are clearly distinguishable from one another not only in the morphological appearance of the interproglottidal glands but also in the gross appearance of mature and gravid proglottids. Molecular analyses revealed that 5.8S and ITS2 sequences of Vietnamese M. expansa are highly similar (99.7%) to the sequences from Japan and India, and made a common clade which was clearly distinct from M. benedeni of Vietnam. For cox1 sequences, Vietnamese M. expansa showed a high similarity to and were grouped with the sequences from Ethiopia and some sequences from Senegal and China to make a common clade which was separated from the remaining clades of Senegal and China. The cox1 sequences of M. benedeni from China, Vietnam and Senegal were far distant (10.0-15.9%) from each other. The results of this study suggest that more sequence data of Moniezia species with details of morphological features from various geographical locations should be obtained to clarify the taxonomic status of Moniezia species.