Prevalence of Sarcocystis species infecting sheep from Egypt

Sheep is considered as a biological guide for the environmental pollution with different parasites because of their grazing habits and rearing patterns. Herein, we examined 540 sheep of different ages and sexes slaughtered at 3 Egyptian Provinces (Dakahlia, Damietta and Cairo), for detection of Sarcocystis infecion. Esophageal muscle specimens were collected from slaughtered sheep.  Samples were examined using both visual inspection and muscle compression technique.  Fast 5 minutes 10% Geimsa solution immersion of the fresh samples was perfect for better observation of the microscopic sarcocysts. Formalin-preserved positive samples were subjected to histopathological examination. Overall, 95.37% of the examined sheep were harboring sarcocysts. Two types of sarcocysts were revealed, macroscopic (1% of older sheep) and microscopic (84.43% in smaller and 95.37% in older sheep). The infection was proportionally increased with age, while females were had a higher prevalence than males. Incidences equal to or over than 90% were reported allover the year seasons. Morphologically, macroscopiccystswere ranged from 0.8 – 1 cm in length with thin and smooth walls, while the microscopic ones were ranged from 600 – 700 µm in length with thick cyst wall either striated or smooth. Detailed morphological features were given. This report illustrates the wide dispersal of the infective stages of Sarcocystis species (sporocysts) in the environment, and could be beneficial for further molecular studies.