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Molecular Characterization of Sarcocystis Species Isolated from Sheep and Goats in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
- Source :
- Animals, Volume 9, Issue 5, Animals : an Open Access Journal from MDPI, Animals, Vol 9, Iss 5, p 256 (2019)
- Publication Year :
- 2019
- Publisher :
- Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, 2019.
-
Abstract
- Simple Summary In this article, we investigated the occurrence of Sarcocystis species in samples of sheep and goats obtained from slaughterhouses in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. We searched for tongue, heart, esophagus, diaphragm and skeletal muscle tissues. Fragments of these tissues were investigated by macroscopic evaluations, direct optical microscopy of tissue fragments, optical microscopy of digested fragment sediment, transmission electron microscopy and PCR followed by nucleotide sequencing. From the set of information obtained, we searched 230 sheep, and 84 goats; 91 and 36 were found to be infected, respectively. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed Sarcocystis tenella (S. tenella) in sheep and Sarcocystis capracanis (S. capracanis) in goats. Sarcocystis species were confirmed in Saudi Arabian sheep and goats by molecular testing. S. capracanis was most closely related to S. tenella, with the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene (COX1) sequences sharing a (91.7%) identity. Abstract Sarcocystosis is induced by species of Sarcocystis, which is an intracellular protozoan parasite in the phylum Apicomplexa. The diversity and importance of Sarcocystis species in sheep and goats in Saudi Arabia are poorly understood. In this study, the tongue, esophagus, heart, diaphragm, and skeletal muscles were collected from 230 sheep and 84 goats, and the tissues were examined for the presence of Sarcocystis species by macroscopic examination and light microscopy. Microscopic Sarcocystis species cysts were found in both sheep and goats. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed S. tenella in sheep and S. capracanis in goats. Sarcocystis species were confirmed for the first time in Saudi Arabian sheep and goats by molecular testing. S. capracanis was most closely related to S. tenella, with the COX1 sequences sharing 91.7% identity. A phylogenetic analysis produced similar results and indicated that the Sarcocystis isolates were within a group of Sarcocystis species in which dogs were the final host. Finally, the Sarcocystis species cysts from sheep and goats could be grouped together, indicating that they were strongly related.
- Subjects :
- Macroscopic examination
Veterinary medicine
030231 tropical medicine
Sarcocystosis
Biology
Article
030308 mycology & parasitology
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
lcsh:Zoology
parasitic diseases
lcsh:QL1-991
Sarcocystis species
0303 health sciences
lcsh:Veterinary medicine
General Veterinary
Phylogenetic tree
PHYLUM APICOMPLEXA
biology.organism_classification
Protozoan parasite
sheep and goats
Sarcocystis
lcsh:SF600-1100
Animal Science and Zoology
COX1
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 20762615
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Animals
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....e77902cd5db2f2a609058d854c0587c3
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.3390/ani9050256