Coprologic survey on ruminant's fasciolosis in east Azerbaijan province during 2014-2015

Fasciolosis is a zoonotic disease of humans and animals causing health problems and great economic losses in different parts of the world including Iran. Fasciola hepatica and Fasciola gigantica are well-known agents for fasciolosis. Due to health and economic implications of this disease and the lack of field studies on fasciolosis in living ruminants of East Azerbaijan, the current study was carried out to determine fasciolosis status in living ruminants from different regions of East Azerbaijan province based on coprologic method for the first time. For this purpose, a total of 2012 fecal samples (1782 from sheep and 230 from cattle) were collected and examined under light microscope. The microscopic findings showed that of all the samples, 62 (3.48%) from sheep and 10 (4.35%) from cattle were infected with Fasciola spp. eggs. A total of 72 (3.58%) fecal samples were infected by fasciola eggs. Geographically, the highest percentage of infection in cattle and sheep were observed in the northern regions of province with 6.14% and 5.21% respectively. In terms of age the infection rates in cattle under and over 2 years were 3.81% (4.105) and 4/8% (6.125) respectively whereas those for sheep were 4.38% (41.937) and 2.49% (21.845). The results indicated presence of fasciolosis amongst ruminants of the province necessitating further studies to detect the unknown aspects of disease and regular antiparasitic treatments for its prevention.