Filling the void: Morphological and molecular phylogenetic analyses of helminths assemblage from the Egyptian egret Bubulcus ibis.

The cattle egret (B. ibis) as a common wader birds in Egypt, they act a sole reservoir for many parasites and play a vital role in their life cycle and their distribution in their environment. The study was conducted from September 2020 to August 2021. A total of 180 B. ibis were collected from Al Qantara Gharb, Ismailia province, Egypt. Parasite species identification infecting cattle egret included morphological and morphometric characteristics based on light and scanning microscopy. Additionally, utilizing the partial small subunit ribosomal RNA (18S rRNA, ITS2 and ITS1) gene sequence, maximum parsimony was used to infer the phylogeny of the recovered species. The morphological and molecular studies revealed three helminths. Only one nematode (Desportesius invaginatus, linstow,1901) and two trematodes (Patagifer bilobus, Dietz,1909 and Apharyngostrigea cornu, Zeder,1800) have been identified. The cattle egret (B. ibis) are protagonists in the life cycle of many parasites. The study is considered the first in Egypt to fill the gap of phylogenetic analysis of three helminths; two of them (A. cornu and P. bilobus) were the first to be molecular phylogenetically analyzed in Egypt. The molecular data provided set the conspecific relation of the three identified helminths species with other related helminths. The new identified sequences will help in founding the basis for forthcoming identifications of other helminths species from cattle egret in Egypt and prospective view to possible parasitic assemblage affecting egret population and other animal populations in their environment.