Date Received: 04-04-2026 / Date Accepted: 30-07-2026 / Date Published: 26-10-2026
Taenia taeniaeformis is a prevalent tapeworm species that parasitizes felines, distinguished by variability in the number of rostellar hooks, a notable morphological characteristic of the genus. This investigation aimed to identify and assess the intraspecific genetic diversity of T. taeniaeformis in domestic cats utilizing two mitochondrial markers, cox1 and nad1. Nine adult tapeworm specimens, possessing 32-48 rostellar hooks, were subjected to PCR amplification and DNA sequencing. The sequences obtained demonstrated a high degree of nucleotide similarity to reference sequences in GenBank, achieving 99.53% for cox1 and 99.78% for nad1, thereby confirming the specimens' classification as T. taeniaeformis. Genetic analyses indicated that the nad1 gene exhibited greater genetic variability than cox1, as evidenced by a higher nucleotide diversity value ( = 0.066 versus 0.017), suggesting its enhanced potential for resolving population structure and phylogenetic analyses. The findings also suggested that the genetic diversity of T. taeniaeformis was not solely reliant on variations in the number of rostellar hooks. This study contributes significant molecular data on T. taeniaeformis in cats in Vietnam.
