Molecular Identification of <i>Sarcocystis</i> Species in Sheep from Lithuania
Alina Marandykina-Prakienė | Dalius Butkauskas | Naglis Gudiškis | Evelina Juozaitytė-Ngugu | Vytautas Januškevičius | Eglė Rudaitytė-Lukošienė | Petras Prakas
Data on the distribution of different <i>Sarcocystis</i> species in various muscles of sheep are scarce. In the present study, 190 diaphragm, oesophagus, and heart muscle samples of 69 sheep raised in Lithuania were examined for the presence of <i>Sarcocystis</i> spp. Under a light microscope, two morphological types of microcysts corresponding to <i>S</i>. <i>arieticanis</i> and <i>S</i>. <i>tenella</i> were detected. Eight and 12 sarcocysts of <i>S</i>. <i>arieticanis</i> and <i>S</i>. <i>tenella</i>, respectively, were isolated and characterised by the sequencing of a portion of <i>cox1</i>. The sequence comparisons revealed the highest similarity between European and Asian isolates of <i>S</i>. <i>arieticanis</i> and <i>S</i>. <i>tenella</i> obtained from domestic sheep and other wild Caprinae hosts. Based on peptic digestion, nested PCR targeting cox1, and sequencing, a 100% infection prevalence of <i>S</i>. <i>arieticanis</i> and <i>S</i>. <i>tenella</i> was observed in the 69 studied animals. The occurrence of <i>S</i>. <i>tenella</i> was significantly higher in the diaphragm than in the oesophagus (χ2 = 13.14, <i>p</i> < 0.001), whereas differences in the prevalence of <i>S</i>. <i>arieticanis</i> in the studied muscle types were insignificant (χ2 = 1.28, <i>p</i> > 0.05). Further molecularly based epidemiological studies are needed to compare the prevalence of <i>Sarcocystis</i> species in various muscles of sheep raised in different geographic regions.
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