Comprehensive Account on Prevalence and Characteristics of Hydatid Cysts in Livestock from Pakistan

Pakistan is at intersection of hyperendemic regions for hydatidosis. Current study aimed to determine the prevalence of hydatid cysts and cyst characteristics in different intermediate hosts (sheep, goats, cattle and buffaloes) across the 4 provinces of Pakistan. A total of 991 sheep, 1,478 goats, 1,602 cattle and 1,343 buffaloes were examined for presence of hydatid cysts during 2 years (January 2016-December 2018). Differences in frequency of hydatidosis were observed with highest overall prevalence in buffaloes (11.9%) and sheep (11.5%). Highest prevalence and burden of infection were observed in older age animals (23.8%, 9.78±0.49) and females (26.5%, 12.53±0.67). Data for seasonal prevalence alluded to year-round presence of disease with non-significant statistical difference. Organ predilection indicated liver as the most preferred site of cyst localization followed mainly by lungs. An over-dispersion pattern was observed in all infected animals as majority of cysts belonged <10 cysts per infected host category. Highest percentage of fertile cysts was observed in liver of sheep. Interestingly, solitary form of cysts had higher fertility rate than multiple form. Amid lack of data and wide gap of knowledge, this study would try to fill up the lacunae regarding this neglected tropical disease. Extensive rearing of livestock, unregulated official slaughter and home slaughtering have played role in adaptability of E. granulosus in Pakistan.

Updated status of cystic echinococcosis in humans and livestocks in Turkey

Cystic echinococcosis has been frequently reported in different regions of Turkey. Based on the official announcements of the Ministry of Health, a total of 52 000 patients (3 257 patients per year) underwent surgery for cystic echinococcosis between 1990 and 2005 in the country. The annual incidence of cystic echinococcosis has been reported as 0.8-2.0/100 000, whereas the rate was supposed to be higher (6.4/100 000) in some regions. Although a total of 14 789 surgically confirmed cystic echinococcosis patients were reported between 2001 and 2005, the seroprevalence of human cystic echinococcosis has been estimated to be between 2.7%-14.6% in different parts of Turkey. A cross-sectional ultrasound-based study recorded abdominal cystic echinococcosis in 53 out of 8 618 healthy people screened in 2014-2015. There are many studies about molecular characterization of Echinococcus (E.) granulosus sensu lato in Turkey. It has been reported that E. granulosus sensu stricto (formerly G1-G3 genotypes) was the dominant species responsible for human cystic echinococcosis in Turkey. The G6 and G7 genotypes of E. canadensis also have been confirmed in human isolates. There have been many prevalence studies on cystic echinococcosis of farm animals in Turkey over the past years. Depending on the geographical area and specimens evaluated, the prevalence of cystic echinococcosis in livestock hosts ranged from 3.5% to 58.6%. However, the published studies showed that the prevalence of cystic echinococcosis could be ranged between 3.50%-70.91% in sheep, 1.60%-25.11% in goats, 3.00%-46.41% in cattle, and 10.24%-41.10% in buffaloes, respectively. A large part of genotyping studies at the molecular level, especially in livestock, have shown that E. granulosus s.s. (G1-G3 genotypes) is the most prevalent species responsible for cystic echinococcosis infection in sheep, cattle, goat, and camel. The G7 genotype of E. canadensis was found less frequently in sheep. Additionally, the G1 genotype of E. granulosus s.s and the G4 genotype of E. equinus have been confirmed in horses.

A Retrospective Analysis on the Cystic Echinococcosis Cases Occured in Northeastern Punjab Province, Pakistan

A retrospective study was performed to report the case occurrence of cystic echinococcosis (CE) in three hospitals of north-eastern region in Punjab Province, Pakistan. We reviewed retrospectively the clinical records of patients in 4 hospitals which were diagnosed with CE during 2012–2017. A total of 198 cases, 82 (41.4%) male and 116 (58.6%) females were detected as CE. The most Highest incidence was revealed in.... 21–30 years-old group (24.2%) followed by 41–50 (22.7%), 31–40 (16.2%), 11–20 (13.6%), 51–60 (8.1%), below 10 (5.5%), over 71 (5.1%) and 61–70 year-old group (4.5%). CE was detected in various organs of infected individuals. However, most of CE cases were detected in the liver (47.4%) and lung (18.6%). The present study indicated that CE is more or less prevalent in surveyed areas and one of the most important public health problems in Punjab Province, Pakistan.

Molecular epidemiology of Echinococcus species in Pakistan

Objective:Cystic echinococcosis (CE) is a zoonotic parasitic disease and a neglected infectious disease affecting more than one million people globally. It is caused by the tapeworm parasite of Echinococcus granulosus sensu lato. It is endemic in the neighbours of Pakistan. However, there are limited studies on molecular epidemiology of CE in Pakistan.Methods:Discrimination of Echinococcus species has been done mostly by morphologically and less work has been done by molecular methods in Pakistan. There are limited studies have been conducted to explore the molecular epidemiology of Echinococcus species in human and livestock. In human just retrospective studies have been conducted and there is a serious lack of studies on molecular basis.Results:So far in Pakistan just four studies have been published on genotyping of Echinococcus spp. common sheep strain (G1) and buffalo strain (G3) in livestock (small and large ruminants) and Echinococcus granulosus sensu stricto (G1-G3) in buffaloes, while Echinococcus granulosus sensu stricto (G1-G3), Echinococcus multilocularis, Echinococcus canadensis (G6/7) in human have been reported. Based on these four studies clearly shows that CE is yet neglected in Pakistan. These findings indicate that due to the higher population of sheep and buffaloes, G1 and G3 strains are highly prevalent in human and animals. Association of stray dogs with sheep herds and other livestock at the grazing sites is responsible for the higher prevalence of CE that acts an active role in the transmission of CE while the wild animals and camel are responsible for the less infection.Conclusion:There is dire need of more studies on molecular identification of CE to understand its species diversity and molecular epidemiology in Pakistan. It is an important step toward management of echinococcosis based on One Health Concept.

Prevalence of hydatidosis in livestocks in Chakwal District of Pakistan

Background:Hydatidosis is a zoonotic parasitic disease and a serious human and animal health problem in many endemic areas of the world. It is caused by the tapeworm parasite of Echinococcus granulosus sensu lato. This parasite is endemic in the neighboring countries like China, Iran and India. There are limited studies on CE in Pakistan.Methods:This study primarily aimed to determine the prevalence of hydatidosis in slaughtered livestocks in Chakwal district (Chakwal, Bhaun, Kallar kahar, Choa saidan shah and Balkasar) from June to December 2015. The livestocks were inspected after slaughtering and the ages, breeds and organ wise prevalence were recorded.Results:A total of 6 095 animals (sheep, goat, buffaloes and cattle) of different genders, ages and breeds were inspected after slaughtering. Overall prevalence was 8.55% (88/1 045) in sheep followed by 8.42% (88/1 045), 6.90% (4/58), 2.99% (138/4 608) in cattle, buffaloes and goats, respectively. Liver wise prevalence was 7.75%, 6.90%, 0.06%, 1.30% in cattle, buffaloes, goats and sheep, respectively while lung wise prevalence was 7.55%, 0.67%, 0.00%, 0.00%, in sheep, cattle, buffaloes and goats, respectively. Male (9.50%) were more infected than female (1.96%) in all hosts. Breed wise prevalence was higher in desi breed of cattle followed by crossbreed and other breeds. In goats, teddhi breed was more infected then beetal while in sheep Afghani breed was more infected than the others. Cattle of 6-9 years groups were more infected than 0-3 and 3-6 years age groups. Buffaloes of the only age group of 6-9 years were infected while in goat and sheep 3-6 years were more infected than 0-3 years. According to the statistical analysis there was a significant difference (P<0.05) in prevalence of hydatidosis when ages, genders and organs were compared.Conclusion:The hydatidosis is a serious parasitic problem in the study area for livestocks. The disease should be monitored on regular basis in other areas of Pakistan and future studies should be carried out to explore the real prevalence in Pakistan.

computational structural analysis of functional attributes of hypodermin A and B proteins: a way forward for vaccine development

Hypodermosis is a parasitic disease of cattle. The pathogenicity of the disease is attributed to Hypodermin proteins [Hypodermin A, Hypodermin B and Hypodermin C]. Studies suggest that Hypodermin proteins may be defined as Serine proteases and collagenases. The structure of both proteases Hypodermin A and Hypodermin B were modeled using the Swiss-model server followed by its validation using Procheck, Errat and Verify-3D. Afterwards, both Hypodermin A and Hypodermin B were docked against collagen in order to study its interaction with respective Hypodermin proteins. The structure of both Hypodermin A and Hypodermin B showed more bent towards hydrophobic nature, as more beta sheets were present in them. Both structures were also superimposed to check out similarities and differences present between them. Serine, Aspartic acid, Histidine, Glutamic acid and Lysine are found as interacting residues that are involved in hydrogen bonding with collagen. The interactions are found in the active domain region of Hypodermin proteins. The interacting residues were present in the active region of the hypodermin proteins thus validating the docking studies. This study may help in the drug development against hypodermosis with least side effects

First Molecular Characterization of Hypoderma actaeon in Cattle and Red Deer (Cervus elaphus) in Portugal

Hypoderma spp. larvae cause subcutaneous myiasis in several animal species. The objective of the present investigation was to identify and characterize morphologically and molecularly the larvae of Hypoderma spp. collected from cattle (Bos taurus taurus) and red deer (Cervus elaphus) in the district of Castelo Branco, Portugal. For this purpose, a total of 8 larvae were collected from cattle (n=2) and red deer (n=6). After morphological identification of Hypoderma spp. larvae, molecular characterization was based on PCR-RFLP and mitochondrial CO1 gene sequence analysis. All larvae were morphologically characterized as the third instar larvae (L3) of H. actaeon. Two restriction enzymes were used for molecular identification of the larvae. TaqI restriction enzyme was not able to cut H. actaeon. However, MboII restriction enzyme differentiated Hypoderma species showing 210 and 450 bp bands in H. actaeon. Furthermore, according to the alignment of the mt-CO1 gene sequences of Hypoderma species and to PCR-RFLP findings, all the identified Hypoderma larvae were confirmed as H. actaeon. This is the first report of identification of Hypoderma spp. (Diptera; Oestridae) from cattle and red deer in Portugal, based on morphological and molecular analyses.

Seroprevalence and Spatial Distribution of Toxoplasmosis in Sheep and Goats in North-Eastern Region of Pakistan

Toxoplasmosis is a protozoan disease that is caused by Toxoplasma gondii in livestock and humans. Due to its medical and veterinary importance, it is essential to study the seroprevalence of T. gondii infection among humans and animals in various parts of the world. The major objective of this study was to determine the seroprevalence and spatial distribution of toxoplasmosis in small ruminants (sheep and goats) of north-eastern region, Pakistan. A total of 1,000 animals comprising of sheep (n=470) and goats (n=530) were examined for T. gondii infection by using ELISA. An epidemiological data was collected in the form of questionnaire. A surface has been generated by using method of interpolation in Arc GIS with the help of IDW (inverse distance weight). The results showed higher seroprevalence of T. gondii in goats (42.8%) as compared to sheep (26.2%). The seroprevalence was higher in females as compared to males in all examined ruminants. Similarly, there is a wide variation in the seroprevalence of T. gondii in different breeds of sheep and goats showing higher seroprevalence in Teddy (52.8%) and Damani breed (34.5%) of goat and sheep's, respectively. The geographical and spatial distribution of T. gondii shows that it is widely distributed in different parts of the north-eastern region of Pakistan. Our results suggest widespread environmental contamination with T. gondii oocysts. It suggests us that small ruminants could be a potentially important source of T. gondii infection if their infected meat is consumed undercooked.

First Report of Echinococcus equinus in a Donkey in Turkey

A 2-year-old female donkey (Equus asinus) was euthanized in the Pathology Department of Firat University, Elazig, Turkey. Necropsy disclosed the presence of 7 hydatid cysts distributed throughout the lung parenchyma. One of those cysts represented the parasite material of the present study and was molecularly identified through sequencing of a fragment of cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (CO1) and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide dehydrogenase subunit 1 (NADH1) gene, as Echinococcus equinus. The generated CO1 sequence supports the presence of the dominant haplotype as has been described in Europe and Africa. The NADH1 sequence was found similar to sequences reported in equids in Egypt and the United Kingdom. The molecular identification of E. equinus in a donkey is being reported for the first time in Turkey.

Surgical and Molecular Evaluation of Pediatric Hydatid Cyst Cases in Eastern Turkey

Cystic echinococcosis (CE) caused by Echinococcus granulosus is a major public health problem worldwide, including Turkey. The aim of the current study was to identify the strains and to estimate the potential risk factors of E. granulosus in operated pediatric cases in eastern Turkey. Ten pediatric patients (7 boys and 3 girls) living in rural areas, with ages ranging from 3 to 15 years old and various clinical histories, were included in this study. Eight patients had only liver hydatid cyst, while 1 patient had liver and lung hydatid cyst and the other liver, lung, and spleen, together. There were 2 ruptured liver cysts. After surgery, during follow-up, no increase was observed in hemagglutination levels, there were no mortalities, and there was no evidence of recurrence at 2 years post operation in all patients. Molecular analysis was performed on hydatid cyst samples obtained from the 10 pediatric cases. According to mt-12S rRNA PCR results, all cases were found to be G1/G3 cluster of E. granulosus sensu stricto.