Study of prevalence, fertility and vitality of hydatid cystic in cattle slaughtered in abattoirs of mazandaran province (a case study:Amol city)

The fertility and vitality of the hydatid cysts protoscoleces in infected organs of intermediate hosts is very important in the epidemiology of echinococcosis. This study was conducted to assess the prevalence of hydatid cyst, fertility rate, its distribution based on organ type and their vitality in cattle slaughtered at Amol abattoir. A total of 2097 cattle carcasses were examined and Echinococcus granulosis metacestodes were found in 478 of them (22.08%). The organ distributions of cysts were 51.5% in lungs, 21.5% in liver and 27% both liver and lungs. Two or three year old animals had lower contamination than older animals. The cysts fertility rate in animals infected the lungs, liver and both (lungs and liver) were 14.38%, 32.81% and 32.50, respectively. Examining the fertile cysts showed that 36.5% of cysts were vital. The numbers were 33.7% for liver cysts and 39.3% for lung cysts. These results showed that hydatidosis is an economically important disease in cattle in Mazandaran province. Therefore, it should be controlled by safe disposal of infected offal from slaughterhouses.