Biochemical profiles of hydatid cystic fluid from infected dromedary camels, cattle and goats in Oman

This study was performed to evaluate the electrolytes and biochemical profiles in hydatid cyst fluid (HCF) collected from 60 slaughtered animals (dromedary camels, goats and cattle) in Oman. The Beckman Coulter Chemistry Analyser was used to analyse the HCF aspirated from 30 fertile and 30 sterile cysts collected from livers and lungs. The results revealed that the means of sodium, calcium, glucose, magnesium, creatinine and total protein in dromedary camels, cattle and goats varied significantly (p < 0.05) as compared to their normal serum ranges. Based on the location of cyst, significant (p < 0.05) variations in the means of sodium, glucose in cattle, glucose and magnesium in camels and chloride in goats were observed in HCF of livers and lungs (p < 0.01). The comparison of biochemical composition between fertile and sterile HCF revealed significant difference between the means of sodium (p = 0.003) and chloride (p = 0.012) in camels and phosphorus (p < 0.01), triglycerides (p = 0.015) and total protein (p = 0.008) in cattle, while the means of magnesium (p < 0.01), phosphorus (p < 0.01), creatinine (p < 0.01) and total protein (p = 0.002) varied in fertile and sterile HCF of the goats. These differences in biochemical components of HCF from various intermediate hosts could be related to the variations in parasite metabolism, growth rate of the larvae or strain variations. Further investigations are required to compare these results with the HCF collected from human patients, which could be used for the diagnostic purpose and stain identification.