Lucie Škorpíková

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Researcher at Masaryk University

Background: Pathogenic blood-feeding nematodes, such as Haemonchus contortus and the invasive Ashworthius sidemi , infect a wide range of wild and domestic ruminants. While the spread of A. sidemi among European cervids has been studied, its presence in chamois ( Rupicapra rupicapra ) remains poorly documented. Conversely, H. contortus is known to...

Monitoring gastrointestinal helminth infections in wild ruminants poses significant challenges for managing wildlife health, particularly regarding invasive species. Traditional coprological methods are often limited by their labor-intensive nature and potential for erroneous identification due to morphological similarities among parasite species....

The nutria was introduced to Europe from South America and kept for the fur industry. This semiaquatic rodent became a well-established species in the Czech Republic; however, it still poses a significant threat to the native fauna, not only as a natural competitor but also as a vector of non-indigenous parasites. Our research aimed to investigate...

A non-native nematode Ashworthius sidemi has emerged in captive fallow deer in Central and Eastern Europe over the last decade. Although this parasite has been spreading in the wild outside it’s native distributional range and colonising local European host species since the middle of the last century, limited information has been published on the...

Fasciola hepatica is a global parasite of livestock which also causes a neglected zoonosis in humans. The parasite’s communication with the host during its complicated lifecycle is based on an ingenious enzymatic apparatus which includes a variety of peptidases. These enzymes are implicated in parasite migration, pathogenesis of the disease, and mo...

Eurasian beaver (Castor fiber) is a well-established faunal element in the Czech Republic, even though, historically, its populations were almost eradicated in this region. Nowadays, its distribution and population density are well monitored; nonetheless, the beaver’s parasites, as potential threats to the environment, are often neglected in wildli...

Fasciola hepatica is a global parasite of livestock which also causes a neglected zoonosis in humans. The parasite’s communication with the host during its complicated lifecycle is based on an ingenious enzymatic apparatus which includes a variety of peptidases. These enzymes are implicated in parasite migration, pathogenesis of the disease, and mo...

Background: The diagnosis of gastrointestinal nematode (GIN) infections in ruminants is routinely based on mor-phological/morphometric analysis of parasite specimens recovered by coprological methods, followed by larval culture (LC) techniques. Such an approach is laborious, time-consuming, requires a skilled expert, and moreover suffers from certa...

Background: The diagnosis of gastrointestinal nematode (GIN) infections in ruminants is routinely based on morphological/morphometric analysis of parasite specimens recovered by coprological methods and followed by larval culture techniques. Such an approach is laborious, time-consuming, requires a skilled expert and moreover suffers from certain l...

Abstract Among gastrointestinal nematodes, haematophagous strongylids Haemonchus contortus and Ashworthius sidemi belong to the most pathogenic parasites of both domestic and wild ruminants. Correct identification of parasitic taxa is of crucial importance in many areas of parasite research, including monitoring of occurrence, epidemiological studi...

High resolution melting analysis (HRMA) is a single-tube method, which can be carried out rapidly as an additional step following real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR). The method enables the differentiation of genetic variation (down to single nucleotide polymorphisms) in amplified DNA fragments without sequencing. HRMA has previously been adopted to...

Toxoplasmosis is a worldwide zoonosis and the consumption of undercooked meat is a major risk factor for human infection. Antibodies to Toxoplasma gondii were found in 28.2% (11/39) and 27.8% (5/18) of home-slaughtered goat kids (n = 39) and lambs (n = 18) from four farms in the Czech Republic. The DNA of the parasite was detected in the tissues (d...