evaluation of fecal culture and molecular tracing in the diagnosis of triodontophorus infection in equines

The present study was conducted from january 2022 to june 2023 1401 to determine infection and the type of helminth parasites in the digestive tract of equid animals of khuzestan province, especially in the northeast. in this study, the relationship between different factors, including age, sex, and type of animal, was done with helminth infection, evaluation of fecal culture, and molecular method, regarding the triodontophorus parasite, fecal samples were randomly taken from 120 single animals including horses (43), donkeys (69) and mules (8). separation of worm eggs from fecal samples was conducted by flotation method and the number of eggs per gram of feces (epg) was determined. by culturing the stool samples and isolating the third-stage larvae(l3) by berman s method, the type and percentage of strongyles were determined based on the characteristics of the larvae. a number of 80 strongyle-egg positive samples (including triodontophorus positive samples) were analyzed molecularly by pcr method, genus-specific triodontophorus primers. the results showed that 113 samples (94.16%) were infected with helminth parasites؛ 111 samples (98.23%) were infected with strongyles, 2 samples (1.76%) with strongyles and parascaris equorum. among the infected animals, 41 horses (95.34%), 64 donkeys (92.75%), and 8 mules (100%) were infected with strongyles. there was a significant difference between these different age groups (p<0.000). according to the feca culture, the results of total infection with cyathostomum and gyalocephalus, 113 (94.16%), strongylus vulgaris 38 (31.66%), poteriostomum (34.16%) and triodontophorus 35 (29.16%) was obtained. the results of the molecular study showed that 30 of the 80 fecal samples containing strongyle eggs were triodontophorus