Nematophagous fungi, an extraordinary tool for controlling ruminant parasitic nematodes and other biotechnological applications

ABSTRACT

Ruminant parasitic nematodes (RPN) severely damage both the health and productivity of animals, followed by important economic losses in livestock production systems. The use of chemical anthelmintic drugs (AD) is a common practice of control; however, the development of anthelmintic resistance (AR) in the parasites has become a growing problem. Additionally, animals treated with AD eliminate drug residues to the soil through faeces where affect beneficial organisms. Nematophagous fungi (NF) inhabit the soil, where they closely coexist with a wide variety of individuals of many populations. Such a relationship has triggered an extraordinary adaptation process, and different eco-biological associations with other microorganisms have been established. In this context, NF have become one of the most important natural antagonists of nematodes (NAN). This natural behaviour has led researchers in many countries to search for potential tools to control RPN and plant-parasitic nematodes. Beyond that, many important scientific findings have been recently made. In this review, a general view of the problem caused by RPN and their economic impact, including AR, as well as different sustainable alternatives of control, including the use of NAN, is addressed. A brief overview of general aspects of NF including classification, morphology and their use in the control of plague nematodes affecting ruminants and economically important crops, the indirect benefit of using NF in the ecosystem as well as other areas of opportunity; i.e. in the control of breast cancer and other biological activities attributed to secondary metabolites produced by NF, are also briefly addressed.

KEYWORDS:

• Nematophagous fungi
• biological control
• animal health
• parasitic nematodes
• phytonematodes
• active metabolites

Acknowledgments

Dr Pedro Mendoza de Gives express his gratitude to INIFAP-México and CONACyT for supporting most of research studies on this important line of investigation carried out at the Laboratory of Helminthology of CENID-SAI, for more than 30 years. Dr Fabio Ribeiro Braga and Dr Jackson Victor de Araújo acknowledge the CAPES (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior) to CNPq (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico), FAPES (Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa e Inovação do Espírito Santo) and Fapemig (Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa de Minas Gerais).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).