A study on the abundance of infection with Sarcocystis in goats slaughtered in the Tabriz slaughterhouse

Abstract

Sarcocystis is a mandatory intracellular parasite that is common between humans and animals, which causes huge losses in the livestock and meat industries. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of Sarcocystis infection in goats slaughtered in Tabriz slaughterhouse. For this purpose, the carcasses of 240 slaughtered goats were examined for the presence of macrocysts by eye observation and then by microscopic by dob-smear and digestive methods. Based on the results, 2.5% of the studied carcasses were diagnosed with macrocytic observation. In the microscopic examination by dob-smear and digestion methods, 35.83% and 100% respectively of the cases were positively diagnosed. There is a significant relationship between contamination and the studied method (p<0.05), which has higher validity digestion than the dob-smear and macroscopic method. There was also a statistically significant difference between the contamination rate among different muscles (p<0.05). As well, the highest microcyst contamination was observed in diaphragm muscles and the lowest microcyst contamination was observed in the heart muscle. This study showed the necessity of microscopic observation of the Sarcocystis contamination in the goat carcasses.