Prevalence and Molecular Diagnosis of Gongylonema Pulchrum in Cattle and Sheep in the Samsun Region

Abstract

This study was carried out between November-2017 and June-2019 to determine the distribution and molecular characterization of Gongylonema pulchrum in cattle and sheep slaughtered in local abattoirs and slaughtering areas during the feast of sacrifice. In this study, esophagi collected from 380 (358 young and 22 mature) cattle and 848 esophagi from sheep (816 young and 32 old) were examined. Esophagus taken after slaughtering was brought to the laboratory in plastic bag. In the laboratory, all the esophagi were cut open with scissors and all of the materials were examined using a loupe under a light source. Parasites were taken out using eye forceps and placed in 70% ethyl alcohol. Following the primary morphological examination, all the parasites cut into three parts, anterior and posterior parts were used for morphologic identification and mid part was used for molecular identification. BpCoxI-F1 and BpCoxI-R1 primers were used for molecular identification. Only two cows (older than four years) were infected and the infection rate was 0.53%. A total of 27 parasites were identified, 18 were male and 9 were female. Parasites were not found in the examined sheep. All the samples collected from the infected cattle were identified as G. pulchrum after morphological examinations and molecular confirmation and positive bands were detected at 400bp.