Occurrence and Distribution of Sarcocystis Parasite Isolated from Sheep in Yazd Province, Iran

Introduction: sarcocystis species are one of the most important meat borne parasites. sarcocystosis causes several symptoms in human as well as numerous diseases with a high economic impact on livestock. in the current paper at first the results of a pilot study for determination of disease agent in the lambs of yazd province in central iran is presented. then the status of parasite in red meat products in the study region is discussed. materials and methods: muscles of 70 slaughtered sheep from both sexes and different ages were investigated for presence of parasite cysts from september to october 2013. carcass inspection with naked eye at industrial slaughterhouses of yazd for macroscopic cysts, and pepsin-digestion method for microscopic cysts was performed on common infected sites of infection. results: no macroscopic cyst was seen at inspection. however, bradyzoites of parasite were observed in 97.14% of animals’ digested muscles. no significant difference between infection and age groups or sex of animals was observed. conclusion: as humans are considered to be the final and intermediate host of different species of sarcocystis and since parasite cysts are present at microscopic sizes, transmission of infection from lamb meat should come into consideration.