Hydatidosis is a widespread zoonosis infecting a large number of
animals and humans. Human hydatidosis is a common disease in different
parts of Iran especially in Hamadan province. Many cases of cysts are
operated every year in regional hospitals. Animal echinococcosis
prevalence was determined by necropsy examination of viscera from
domestic slaughtered animals, including sheep, goats and cattle.
After inspecting viscera for hydatid cyst, unilocular cysts produced by
E. granulosus were recovered from 212 out of 2000 domestic herbivores
(1547 sheep, 333 cattle and 120 goats) slaughtered in Hamadan abattoir.
The number of cyst of different organs was counted and their diameter was
measured. Thereafter, by dissecting the cysts, the volume of hydatic fluid
was measured, and their fertility was determined by finding protoscoleces
and the number of protoscolex per/ml fluid was counted.
The frequency of presumptive liver/abdominal, lung, and liver-lung
hydatid cyst was 15.3% (51/333), 10.6% (159/1547) and 1.7% (2/120) for
cattle, sheep and goats respectively. The fertility rate of hydatid cysts in
sheep, cattle, and goats recorded as 35.2.%, 23.5% and 0% respectively. The
huge dispersed slaughtering of sheep for various purposes and the large
number of dogs allowed access to the offal coupled to the hundred
thousands number of sheep slaughtered in Haj Pilgrim days, indicates that,
the sheep is the most significant host for maintaining the life cycle of the
parasite in Iran.
We demonstrated a high prevalence of animal echinococcosis in this
mountainous , agricultural province of Iran.
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