prevalence and intensity of paramphistomum spp. in cattle from south-eastern iran.

background: parasitological investigations on paramphistomosis were carried out over a 12-month period in the southeast of iran to determine the prevalence and intensity of this disease. methods: a total of 1000 cattle, sistani breed (n= 450) and brahman breed (n= 550) of all sex and age groups were inspected at random for the presence of paramphistomidae flukes in zabol slaughterhouse from december 2012 to octo-ber 2013. results: paramphistomes were found in 369 of 1000 necropsied cows (36.9%; 95% ci: 30.1-41.9%), with significant higher prevalence of infection in brahman breed than in sistani breed (51% vs 19.3%). no significant correlation between prevalence, intensity of infection, sex and age of cattle was noted. despite the dif-ference in the seasonal variations of prevalence, and the relation between the inten-sity of infection and season, these were not statistically significant. the mean inten-sity of infection in brahman breed was higher (652.66 ± 281.5) than sistani breed (123.32 ± 32.2). the identification of stained trematodes to the species revealed 40, 20, 20, 15 and 5% gastrothylax crumenifer, cotylophoron cotylophorom, paramphistomum cervi, carmyerius spatiosus, explanatum explanatum, respectively. conclusion: the present results will contribute to our understanding of the epi-demiology of paramphistomumosis in southeastern iran.