Detection of Sarcocystis Infection in Wild Ungulates in Tripoli Safari Park, Libya

Abstract

Sarcocystosis is one of the most widespread muscle diseases of domesticated and non-domesticated wild mammals. To estimate the prevalence of Sarcocystis infection, muscles samples were obtained from79 freshly dead wild life herbivores species, 7 Addax (Addax nasomaculatus), 14 Barbary sheep (Ammontragus lervia), 17 Dorcas gazelle (Gazella dorcas), 12 Mouflon (Ovis musimon) and 29 Fallow deer (Dama dama) in Safari Park south of Tripoli, Libya. Individual sarcocysts were processed and optical examination was used for detection of macroscopic sarcocysts whereas light microscopy was used for microscopic sarcocysts.The examination of muscular tissue samples from different organs in 5 different wild animal species revealed an overall prevalence of 56.9% (45/79); 71.4% (5/7) in addax; 64.3% (9/14) in Barbary sheep; 58.6% (17/29) in fallow deer; 58.3% (7/12) in Mouflon and 41.0% in gazella for Sarcocystis spp.Macroscopic and microscopic sarcocysts were 3.8% (3/79) and 53.2% (42/79) respectively.Among the muscles infected with cysts, highest infection of Sarcocystis were recorded in heart 50.6%(40/79) and48.1%(38/79) in diaphragm whereas in oesophagus40.5% (32/79).Reported results highlight the high prevalence of Sarcocystis infection in wild animals in the Tripoli safari park and suggests the need of further molecular biology studies to characterize Sarcocystis species that infect captive wild animals existed in Libya, and investigate their possible role in zoonosis.