Massive cysticercosis as a problem in cattle production in Serbia

Bovine cysticercosis is a zoonosis caused by the larval stage of the human tapeworm Taenia saginata. It is one of the very important diseases, especially from the aspects of human health protection and efficiency of cattle production. Mature tapeworm proglottids, typically containing thousands of eggs, are commonly passed in the feces of infected individuals and, under unsanitary conditions, can lead to pasture or water contamination and the infection of cattle. Ingested eggs develop into cysticerci, which can be detected during meat inspection at the routinely inspected localization sites of the parasite, including heart, masseters, skeletal muscle, diaphragm, and tongue (Gracey and Collins, 1992). Differences in geographical isolates of the parasite and in the breed and age of cattle have been suggested as possible factors affecting the distribution of Cysticercus bovis (Pawlowski and Murrell, 2001). In Europe, prevalence ranges from 0.007 to 6.8% (Pawlowski and Schultz, 1972; Cabaret et al., 2002); in Iran 0.25% (Khaniki et al., 2010); the prevalence is highest in Africa, in Ethiopia 18.49% (Kebede, 2008), Egypt 1.6% (Abdo et al, 2009), Senegal 20%, Nigeria (0.2 to 9%), Cameroon 7.2%, Tanzania 0-27% and Kenya (38-62%) (Over et al., 1992). In Serbia, the last extensive research on bovine cysticercosis was conducted during 1988 and 1989 on cattle slaughtered at the export abattoir facility MIP Požarevac. A prevalence of 0.626% was found; the highest number of infected animals came from the Belgrade region (1.60%) and AP Vojvodina (1.29%) and the lowest from the Niš region (0%) (Miloradovic and Aleksic, 1994; Aleksic 1992). Findings presented in this paper obtained from cattle farms in the Bac region showed that the percentage of infected animals may be significantly higher. Although there is a possibility of using serological diagnostic assays, visual post-mortem examination during meat inspection of slaughtered cattle is currently the only applied method. In this way all metacestodes present in meat cannot be detected because this method has a low sensitivity, resulting in an underestimation of the prevalence of bovine cysticercosis (Walther and Koske, 1980; Dorny et al., 2000; Dorny and Praet, 2007). Significant economic losses in cattle production can be result of meat declaration as conditionally admissible or even carcass rejection in the case of greater intensity of infection. This paper describes cysticercosis occurrence on a beef cattle farm located in northern Serbia.