A. U. Vet. Fak. Derg,
36 (3): 692-703, 1989
PREVALE"CE OF SARCOCYSTiS SPP.
ı"
CATTLE IN ELMADAG, A:\'KARA, TURKEY"Zişan Emre1 Metin Alabayl
Hamit Demjrta~"
Harun Çerçi2
Elmadağ Yöresinde Sığırlarda Sarl'Osporidiosc'uı! Yayılışı
Özet: Bu çaltşma t,Jl/wda{!; me:ha/wslflda kesilen sığır/arda
sar-cosporidiose' un yayllışııu il/ce/emek amaCly/a yürütü/müştür. M
ayıs-Araftk
ı
988 tarilı/eri arasıııda kesilenı
55 sığ m/an a/ll1alı yemekhorusu, diyali'am re çene kas/an tnl1sin i/e muamele edi/miş ve
mikro.I'-kobik o/arak Sarcocystis tür/eri a/'(fnmıştır. Araştırma sonuııda 155
sl-ğırdan
%
94.84 üniiıı enfekte oldu/!;u belirlenmiştir. Mikroskobik bakıdagörülen kistler ince ve ka/ııı kenarlt olarak sllJ!f/andm/nllş, aynca
cin-siyet, yaş, ırk fak tör/erin iıı eı!feksiyon üzerindek i et k i/eri araşt m/nllşflr.
AY/1/ yörede bu/unan 83 köpek ten a/man (/iş/u öl'I1eklerinde
paraZl'-t%jik yok/ama yapl/nll)', Sarcocystis tür/erine
%
43.3 oranll1darast-/annllştır.
Summary: An examinatiol'l (~f Sarcocysfis spp. iıı alft/e s/aughtered
iıı E/mada,,?, Ankara, lin'key lFas undertaken during May fO Decemher
ı
988. The musc/e samp/es (Jf oesophagııs, diaphragm aııd masseterıvere subiected to tryptic digestion prior to the microscopic
examina-tion. Resu/rs indimted that 94.84
%
of 155 catt/e were inj'ected. The cystsseen were grouped as thin- and thick-ıva//ed. Theeflect of sex, age and
breed on the preva/eııce of iıljection were a/so determined.
['aeca/ samp/es of 83 dogs were examiııed to expose the
parasit%-gical patterli of the same region. Jhe results indicated that 43.3
%
ofthe dogs were inlected with Sarcocysfis spp.
'" This study was supportcJ by the Turkish Atomic Energy Authority, Ankara, Tur-key.
i OVM, Ph, D., Lalahan Nuclear Research Institute of Anima! Health, Parasito-logy Laboratory, Lalahan, Ankara, Turkey
2 BS, Lalahan Nuclear Research Institute of Aninıal Health, Parasilology Labora-tory, Lalahaıı, Ankara, Turkey .
I'REVALEI\CE OF SORCO. SP!' li\' CATTLı::
Introduction
69:1
Sarcocystis spp. have been recognized İn cattle throughout the world for many years. Three species of Sarcoeystis, eaeh with an ob-ligative two-host life-cycle in different hosts are found in eattle:
Sar-eoeysıis bovieanis whieh uses dogs, Sarcocyslis hovif'e1is whieh uses cats
and Sareoeystis boviholl1inis which uses man as definitive hosts (7, 23).
Sareoeystis bovieanis is the most comınon and severe pathogen
in eattle (5, 13). Sareocystis are found in the interınediate hosts both as schizonts in the endothelium of the blood vessels and as the cysts in the striated ınuscles (27). The mature sarcocyst in the ınuscle eonta-ins hilndreds of banana-shaped bradyzoİies (13). These are infectious for the definitive host (I 2).
The intermediate hosts aequire the infeetion by ingesting the spo-rocysts dispersed in the environment by the infectiye dogs (8, 27). Sporulated sporocysts are shed on the 9 th day of infection and theyare immediately infectiye to eattle (7). There is a strong carrelatian between the number of sporocyst ingested and the severity of disease in cattle. For example, a dose of about 50.000 Sareoeystis bovieanis sporocysts is mildly pathogenie or nonpathogenic but 200,000 sporocysts is the Iethal dose (12).
Sporozoites are released from the sporoeysts in the intestine of the intermediate hosts and invade many tissues. Sehizogony oecurs in endothelial eells of blood vessels in most organs of the eattle, pre-ceding the development of typical cysts in the nmseJes (7, 20). Cysts vary in length from a few micrometers to several eentiıneters. The thiek-ness and strueture of the eyst walls may vary with cach Sarcocystis speeies (2, 12).
In eattle muscle eysts are distinguished readily by the strueture of the eyst wall (II, 21). Under LM two morphologically distinct typcs of eyst are comınan (4, 9). Sareoeyslis bOl'icanis cysts appear to be thin-walled with very siender protrusions around (4, 23). The cysts of
Sar-eocysıis bovi/elis and Sareoeysıis bOl'ihomiııis appear to be
thick-wal-led with hair- like layer of protrusions on their outer surfaces under
LM (3, 17).
Clinical signs of aeute bavine sareoeystosis are: anorexia, py-rexia (42 oC or more), anemia, eaehexia, enlarged palpable Iymph nodes, excessive salivation and lass of hair at the tip of the tail. These
694 Z. BmE - ~J. ALAD:\\' - ıı. ÇERÇi - I-I. ])E~'Iİ RTAŞ
signs are evident at the time of vascular enuothelium is parasitized hy sehizonts. The sehizonts disappear in about one month and eysts are formed in the museles. The eystie phase of sareoeystosis is virtually nonpathogenie (7).
A number of workers have eontributeo data to the prevalcnee and the identity of Sarcoeystis spp. inftetion~ İn eattle in several eountrıes (4, 16, 18, 19,20.22). The finding of eysts in muscles prompted sev~-ral investigations to determine the prevalence of intestinal protozoa of dogs (I, 6, 7, 15, 25, 26).
In this paper wc report the prcvalencc of microseopie sareoeystis in nıuscle of 155 beef eattle from Elmadağ loeal abattoir in Ankara. and the intestinal parasitologieal patterns of 83 dogs of the same dist-riet.
:\/Iaterials and Mcthods
The muscle saınplcs of oesophagus, diaphragm and massetcr from 155 eattle of both sexes and of various ages and breed were col-leeted from Elmadağ abattoir in Ankara between May and December 1988. Tht: sanıples were subjeeted to tryptie digestion to release the sareoeysts from musele samples.
For the digestion teehnique approximately 15 g of muscle \Vas finely ehopped and digested for 20 min at 22 oC in 50 ml of digestion mediwn containing 100 mg tripsin in 50 ml PBS (pH: 7.5). After di-gestion the digestate was sieved to a beaker to remove the eoarse par-ticles and the filtrate was centrifuged at 1000 rpm for 5 min. The su-pernatant was removed by kaving LO ml of the sediment. The reae-tion was stopped by adding 600 !Li of i
%
CUS04 solution and 666!Li of mixed sediment was uropped on aslide and then examined for individua\ eysts at lOx magnifieation by LM.
The eysts examined were reeorued as thin- or thiek- walled and eounts were given as number of sareoeysts per gram of muscle.
Faecal samples fronı 83 st ray dogs fronı the same distriet were eolleeted and examined by eentrifugal-flotation methods. The soluti-ons used were saturated sodium ehlaride, zine sulphate and sodium clıloride plus zine ehloride with densities of 1.20, i.28 and 1.50 respee-tively. The parasites seen under LM were reeorded.
PREVAI.E:'\CE OF SORCO. SPP ii\" Ci\TTLE
Results
(1)5
Intaet sareoeysts werc reeovcred from 147 of the 155 animals examİned (Table ı).The effeet of sex, age, brecd on the prcvalenee of Sareoeystis spp. İnfeetions are shown İn Table
ı,
2 and 3 respeetive!y.Table 1: Pre'ialencc of Sarcocystis spp. infections in cattle according to sex. i __ Animals exanıined
1----
Infected,tnill1als __!~~~~i
ii Male \ Fenıale ; Male i Fenıalc
i
!-~::
i-~
:7L
~:~-I--~:~Ö3i
N~~:
9~9:
-~~.oi--~;;~i~~4~
L
-9Ç~841
Thin -and thiek- walled eysls wcre easily distinguished by LM (Fig. i and Fİg. 2). The prevalenee and distribution of these cysts are shown İn Tablc 4. The banana-shaped bradyzoites of a rupturcd eyst İs shown on Fig. 3.
Table 2. Prcvalence of Sarcocystis spp. infections in caıılc according to agc.
___ o • • __ .__ __.. .__ __ __ ••• •••_.___ __ •••• _ •••• • _. ••• _
i a_n_i~_~~ı~_~_~:;r",d_:=~g,=_' ._-.-_-_1 1 1 2 ,__ ~~~:ected ~_~m,~s
j
SI_~_
_i
155 !_~revaıencc i NoJ_ % __L~o._I-~
-i-.~~.-i-
~i;; !r-:.~~ı_
% i No. I. ~,;; J_~oı'-
~~i
.__ .___ i 37 _~_8_1 .36 '_2_3.21 3_7 ,_2_3_.8i 1~_~_6~ __' 21._13.5 ~_3..:8 __:
Tablc 3. Prcvalence of Sarcocystis spp. infcctions in caııle according to breed.
i ?' ..•.. Infectel! aninıals .Jcrscy Swiss Brown
Breed i Native Holstein i
-- .---1--- -.--- ---.--- --- ..
--1-.---1_ prevalen~
ı_
~~j __~__
I__~~'_!_%
--1-
N~.--ı ~_)-i~---~---ı'
_'_ i ....!O~_.,_6.7_.0__ ; _ 28_. ~O __L_" i _?7~ :.__ ~_.
_'!'y3_
155Number of animals exanıincd
Table 4.Prevalcnce of thin- and tlıick-walled sarcocystis cysts in thc oesophagus, diaplıragnı and massctcr l11usclc of 155cattlc. Oesoplıagus No. % 103 ; Masseter musclc ; No. % 3315 i i.4 17.2 72.2 Total
i
: No.ı /"~
----.--- - '-ı 37.5 _-1_S73:_;_~_ 69.6 ! 146 94.ı---
93 20.5--1.---
453 100i
38--24~--- 24 15.4 '--79--50~--1 78 112 Diaplıragm No. % 1035 62.3 51. ı 32.2 87.7 282 50 136 4382No. of inf. anim. No. of cyst / g No. of inf. anim. No. of eyst / g Thin-wallcd cysts
I'REVALE:'\CE OF SORCO. SPP IX C:ı\TTLE 697
Fig. 2. Thiek-walled eyst with hair-like protrusions awund
698 Z. EMRE - M. ,\LABAY - H. ÇERÇİ - H. DEMİRTAŞ
Thin-waJled eysts were found signifieantly (p < 0.001) more often in the oesophagus than that of diaphragm but not in the masseter muse-le (5 J. i
%,
i 1.4%
and 37.5%
respeetively). The prevalenee of thiek-waııed eysts in the oesophagus'was signifieantly (p <0.05) higher than in the diaphragm and masseter museles (62.3%, ı
7.2%,
and 20.5%
respeetivcly). During the study 79 of the 147 animals have shown mix-ed infeetions (Table 4).Cyst lengths are ranged from 0-1900 (.lm (mean is 686.31 .:i: 72.45 for thin-waJled eysts and 644.25 .:i: 60.74 for thiek-waııed eysts). Cyst widths are ranged from O to 160 (.lDl (mean is 71.18 .:i: 7.12 for thin-waııed eysts and 64.0 .:i: 5.5 for thiek-waııed eysts). Protrusion widths are grouped into two populations: 2.5 i1.m or 5.0 (.lDl.
The results of examinations in dog faeees are summarised in Table 5 and 6. No unsporulated sporoeysts were seen in the faeees (Fig. 6).
180 ;ım 140 60
r-"
i i i J iı
i i iı
i i i Jr--ı
i i Lr-~
J 1 i i : i i i i i i i J i i i J 20 5LS
Noıo
Fig. 4. Distribution of lengths of thin- and thick-walled cysts D Lcngths of thick-walled cysts
PREV ALEi\'CE üF SüRCü. SP1' tN CATTLE 699 lio 15 ] ',:(00 190(; ]30(' 1 iCJJ CE." 0-'" r-'i
,-ı
r-: i : :ı-T-ı
r-;
i 1 ii i : : : : : : : 1 : : iı i-,
r--ıoFig. 5. Distribution of widths of thin-and thick-walled cysts D Widths of thick-walled cysts
:..::: Widths of thin-walled cysts
Table 5: Prevalence of intestinal protozoa of 83 stray dogs.
I
I
~nfe~~~d .~~i_~ I_No._ı Sarcocystis spp. iı 3156 'i' Isospora spp. Giardia canis i 2 i Eimeria canis!
2 dogs % 43.37 18.07 2.40 2.40Table 6. The helmintological findings of 83 dogs ~.
...-%---44.5 43.3 22.8 13.2 9.0 . Infected dogs _s_pec__ ie_sI---
No.Toxascaris Ieonina 37
Taenia spp. 36
Ancylostoma spp. 19
i
Toxocara can is IL700 Z. EMRE-- M. ALA13AY-II. ÇERÇi -- H. DEMiRTAŞ
Fig. 6. SpOflılated sporocysts in dog faeces
Discussion and Coııclusİon
The geographic distribution of Sarcocystis spp. of cattle is world-wide and the prevalence of infection is high. Infection is inıportant in meat inspection for being affectiye in muscle tissuc in cattle.
To our knowledge, there are no published figures for the actual prevalencc of sarcosporidiosis in cattie in Turkey though thcre are sa-me survey studies in sheep and goats (14, 24).
Observed prevalcnce of Sarcocystis infection is 94.84
%
in this study. During the study the muscle sanıples were examined by tryptic digestion technique for it is proved to be practical and reliable (19). The thin-walled cysts are morphologically indistinguİshahle from those of Sarcocystis bovicanis described by the others (2, 4, 23, 27). Virtually all cattle had been -exposed to Sarcocystis hovicaııis infectian (94. i%).
This is comparablc with the prevalences recorded in Australia (22) and India (16,
ı
7).Thick-walled cysts were recovered 50.9
%
of anİmals but these cysts couldn't be identified as Sarcocystis bovifetis and! or SarcocystisPREVATENCE üF SüRGü SPP IN CATTLE 701
bovilıominis on morphological grounds. The continuolis examination and the measurements of the thickness of cyst walls providcd no basis for the seperation of the cysts into two types in terms of species as İn agreement with the findings of Böttner et ai. (3).
No significant differences in the prevalence of Sareocystis spp. infeetions between male and female cattle were found. In the present studyage and breed were seem to have a significant influence on the prevalence of infection. It was observed the more the age the less the tendency to infection and the natiye breed is more open to infection than the other breeds.
Protozoat pattErns of dog faeces revealed higher prevalence on Sarcocystis spp. than the preva!enccs found in Austria (15,26), Swİtzer-fand (25) and Odiforııin (1). However, less than the prevalence recor-ded in Elazığ, Turkey (I O). The environment in Elmadağ must be he-avily loaded with infectiye sporocysts as a resutt of many dogs and cats passing sporocysts on the pasture. The appearance and the size of spo-rocyst seen in the faeces resembled to those observed by Mahrt, J.L. (21) and Jain,
P.c.
and Shah, H.L. (18).At the faecal examinations of the dogs, the methods involving f1otations in three saturated salt solutions did not give different results. However, the saturated zine sulphate solution seemed prefera ble sinee it deforms the Giardia cysts and enablcs the identification. This finding is in <ıceordance with Burgu's (6).
Sarcosporidiosis have negative effect on the economies of natİoııs and of breedcrs as well as on the health of people. There is a need to control parasitosis in ordcr to safeguard both human health and ani-mal productivity, but unfortunately diagnosis is not yet simplc and aceurate in liye animals. What seems clear is that the identification of cysts in meat samples should be the point of approach and it is neces-sary to pay more attention to the oceurrenee of sareosporidiosis.
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