BACKGROUND: Sarcocystis infection is one of the most common zoonotic protozoon diseases caused by different Sarcocystis spp. Objectives: Due to the importance of this infection in public health, the infection rate of macroscopic and microscopic cysts in sheep and cattle of abattoir of Shahriar, was investigated. Methods: 138 slaughtered sheep and cattle were selected randomly and their esophagus, diaphragm, heart, tongue, masseter and intercostal muscles were separated. In order to find cysts, the samples were examined by two methods: direct observation for macroscopic cysts and finding microscopics cysts by smear dab, Giemsa staining and microscopic investigation for bradyzoites of parasite. Results: In slaughtered samples, there was no macroscopic cyst but microscopic cysts were positive in 93.48% of cattle and 86.95% of sheep by impression smear method. The results showed the significant difference between different muscles and microscopic cysts (p<0.05) .Heart and esophagus were the most infected and tongue was the least infected part. Infections in males were more than females in both sheep and cattle. There was no significant different in various ages of cattle, however, infection in sheep less than one year old, were higher than the other ages. ConclusionS: Due to the heavy Sarcocystis infection in meat of cattle and sheep and the importance of this parasite in public health, it is suggested to avoid eating raw and undercooked meat and conduct preventive measures such as closer inspection of carcasses and local or total removal of slaughtered in abattoir.

BACKGROUND: The repetitive use of antibiotics in different fields (veterinary and medicine) improves the emergence and occurrence of the resistance phenomenon in pathogenic bacteria. Due to the problem of antimicrobial resistance, it is an urgent need to discover new drugs and alternative treatments for the control of bacterial diseases in aquaculture. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study is to investigate antibacterial effects of methanol and hexane extracts of medicinal plants Rattles (Prosopis farcta), datura (Datura stramunium L) and milkweed (Calotropis procera L), the major pathogenic bacteria of fish, including Aeromonas hydrophila, Yersinia ruckeri and Streptococcus iniae. METHODS: Extraction was performed using a rotary evaporator. To determine the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), the standard microdilution method (Dilution in broth) was used and the minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) was determined based on MIC values obtained for each extract. RESULTS: The results showed that the effect of most potent extract, methanol extract obtained from fruit rattle on the three studied bacteria, with MIC and MBC are 25, 50mg/ml, respectively. The most sensitive bacteria to methanol and hexane plant extracts, is bacterium Streptococcus iniae and Aeromonas hydrophila and Yersiniaruckeri bacteria were resistant. The studied extracts had stronger antibacterial properties against gram-positive bacteria compared to gram-negative. CONCLUSIONS: According to the results, it seems that the use of methanol extract of Prosopis farcta fruit is effective for treatment of bacterial diseases in aquaculture.

Diminazene aceturate is one of a limited number of drugs currently being used in animals to treat the tsetse fly-transmitted protozoal disease, African trypanosomiasis. Efficacy of the drug at the recommended single IM administered doses of 3.5 and 7.0 mg/kg of body weight is widely acknowledged. However, resistance to the drug at these dosages has been reported. Although the mechanisms of resistance to diminazene are poorly understood, field and experimental data indicate that it may develop naturally through administration of subcurative doses, or as a result of cross-resistance. Evidence from other experimental studies indicates that there are additional mechanisms by which trypanosomes may develop resistance to diminazene aceturate. For instance, some populations ot Trypanosoma brucei and T. vivax are refractory to treatment because of their ability to invade the CNS, a site that is believed to be poorly accessible to diminazene. Furthermore, in recent studies carried out in goats, it has been documented that the ability of T. Congolense IL 3274 to survive treatment with diminazene depends on the stage of infection when treatment is administered; populations of the parasite reappeared in animals that were treated on day 19 after tsetse fly challenge, whereas all goats were cured when treated on day 1 of infection. Because trypanosomes are confined to the skin on day 1 after infection, but thereafter invade the blood circulation, it is possible that the efficacy of the treatment on day 1 is attributable to exposure of the small number of parasites, relative to later stages of infection, to higher concentrations of drug than those attained in blood. The objective of the study reported here was to determine whether diminazene's pharmacokinetics differ between plasma and lymph draining the skin of goats and therefore account for the variation in therapeutic activity of the drug at different stages of a tsetse fly-transmitted infection. Peripheral lymph was used for this work because it appears to be identical in composition to tissue interstitial fluid, into which trypanosomes are inoculated by infected tsetse flies when feeding.