Molecular identification and phylogenetic analysis of Metarhabditis blumi (Nematoda: Rhabditida).

The species Metarhabditis blumi was diagnosed for the first time in Brazil using a molecular assay. Parasites isolated from two cattle herds from the state of Minas Gerais, southeastern Brazil, were classified as M. blumi according to their D2/D3 expansion fragments of the 28S rDNA sequence, which had a high degree of homology (100% similarity) with a M. blumi sequence deposited in GenBank (EU195965.1). The phylogenetic tree comparison also confirmed grouping of the populations evaluated in the current study as M. blumi.