Survey on sarcocystis infection in slaughtered cattle in South-West of Iran, emphasized on evaluation of muscle squash in comparison with digestion method

Abstract

Sarcocystosis is a zoonotic disease in domestic animals caused by Sarcocystis sp., a cyst-forming coccidian parasite with obligatory two host life cycle involving carnivorous as definitive hosts and herbivorous or omnivorous as intermediate hosts. In present study muscles from skeleton, oesophagus, heart, tongue, diaphragm and abdomen from 344 cattle (176 male and 168 female), slaughtered from February 2009-October 2009 in Ahvaz, Khouzestan, South-West of Iran, investigated for either macroscopic or microscopic sarcocysts using naked eye examination for sarcocysts, peptic digestion and muscle squash for detecting bradyzoites. The prevalence of Sarcocystis infection was identified in 100% of cattle by digestion method and 94.7% by Muscle squash and just one cattle was infected with macroscopic cysts. The results showed that digestion method is a perfect method for diagnosing the sarcocysts in cattle. © Medwell Journals, 2010.