The role of sheep in the epidemiology of Sarcocystis spp. in Tabriz area northwest of Iran

The parasites of genus Sarcocystis are among the most commonly found parasites in domestic ruminants and some species of Sarcocystis can generate important economic loss when causing clinical and subclinical disease. In the present study, three techniques—direct inspection, impression smears and digestion method—were used for the diagnosis of Sarcocystis infection in 130 slaughtered sheep in Tabriz abattoir from April 2013 to October 2013. A total of 620 slaughtered sheep were selected randomly and their oesophagus and diaphragm were inspected using naked eye examination. In the second stage, 130 carcasses out of the 620 which had no apparent infection were selected randomly and their meat investigated using two techniques: impression smear with staining and pepsin digestion. The percentage of macroscopic cysts found in the oesophagus and diaphragm muscle was 5.64 and 2.74 %, respectively, and microscopically, infection was found in 100 % of the organs. There was no significant difference between different ages or between males and females. Although all of the sheep were found to be infected with Sarcocystis, majority of the cysts were demonstrated microscopically. This suggests that meat should be cooked sufficiently, since a macroscopic inspection may not provide true results. Also, it has of great importance the farmers to be trained not to feed their dogs and cats with uncooked meat, and the abattoir remnants to be burned, in order to be effectively broken of infection cycle between the intermediate and the definitive hosts in Tabriz city, northwest of Iran. © 2014, Indian Society for Parasitology.