Survey on the contamination rate of Sarcocystis in slaughtered sheep by digestive method

Sarcocystis is an obligatory intracellular protozoan parasite that can cause digestive disorders in infected patients. This study aimed to determine the incidence of Sarcocystis infection in slaughtered sheep of the Khoy abattoir, Iran. For this, 204 sheep carcasses were examined by visual observation and then further analyzed by digestion method. Based on the results, 5.88% of the studied carcasses were diagnosed with macrocytic observation. In the microscopic examination, 42.65% of the cases were found positive. Data analysis showed a statistically significant difference between contamination rate in different age groups. The occurrence rate increased with age (P < 0.05), while the intensity of infection was independent of the gender. There was also a statistically significant difference between the contamination rate among different muscles (p <0.05). In other words, the highest microcyst contamination observed in skeletal muscles (90.80%). Meanwhile, the lowest microcyst contamination was observed in the heart muscle (29.88%). This study showed the necessity of microscopic observation of the Sarcocystis contamination in the sheep carcasses.