Prevalence and pathological findings of some parasitic infections of sheep

Sheep is reared for their productivity of meat, milk and wool. Parasitic infections are big hazards which threat their productivity. In this study, we examined 16605 sheep with infection rates of Cysticercus tenuicollis (C. tenuicollis), Cysticercus ovis (C. ovis) and Fasciola hepatica (F. hepatica) as 4.4%, 1.95% and 0.04%, respectively. The results showed that females and adult sheep are highly infected than males and young sheep. Fasciola sp was founded in liver, C. tenuicollis was found in liver and omentum, while C. ovis infested both heart and muscles (lead to total condemnation in heavily infested sheep) which caused high losses. The pathological examination of liver infested with Fasciola hepatica revealed pseudo-lobulation and bile duct hyperplasia while C. ovis in muscles showed calcification and granulomatous inflammation and cardiac muscles showed some different shapes of microcysts of Sarcocystis spp. The aim of this study was to determine effect of different factors (age, sex and seasons) on prevalence C. tenuicollis, C. ovis and Fasciola hepatica and pathological characters of them on different organs of sheep.