Cysticercus bovis in cattle slaughtered in North Egypt: Overestimation by the visual inspection method

Vet World Vol.14 January-2021 Article-20

Research Article

Veterinary World, 14(1): 155-160

https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2021.155-160

Mona Hassan El-Sayad¹, Hoda Farag¹, Hend El-Taweel¹, Reda Fadly², Nahla Salama³, Asmaa Abd Elhameed Ahmed⁴, and Naglaa Fathi Abd El-Latif¹

1. Department of Parasitology, Medical Research Institute, Alexandria University, Egypt.
2. Department of Parasitology, Animal Health Research Institute, Agricultural Research Center, Egypt.
3. Department of Food and Science Technology, Faculty of Science, University of Alexandria, Egypt.
4. Department of Biomedical Informatics and Medical Statistics, Medical Research Institute, University of Alexandria, Egypt.

Background and Aim: The World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization list Taenia saginata, a foodborne cestode, as the most widely distributed human tapeworm worldwide. The larval stage of T. saginata, Cysticercus bovis, causes cysticercosis in bovines and infects humans who eat raw or undercooked beef. The existing detection methods of C. bovis in cattle depend on the visual inspection of meat. This study aimed to confirm the identification of C. bovis through visual inspection at the slaughterhouses in North Egypt with a molecular diagnosis.

Materials and Methods: A total of 687 locally bred cattle (Baladi), including 428 cows and 259 buffaloes, slaughtered in four slaughterhouses in North Egypt from April 2018 to February 2019 were inspected for C. bovis using the traditional meat inspection method. Positive samples were verified through polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification and HDP2 gene sequencing.

Results: Through visual inspection, C. bovis was detected in 4.2% and 12.4% of the slaughtered cows and buffaloes, respectively. Molecular analysis confirmed that 1.9% of the animals, all of which were cows, had C. bovis infection. DNA sequencing verified the identity of the PCR-amplified product.

Conclusion: The rate of C. bovis infection in slaughterhouses detected through meat inspection is overestimated compared with that through PCR. Although meat inspection can be used as a primary screening tool for C. bovis, a more specific molecular method is required to achieve an accurate diagnosis. Keywords: cattle, Cysticercus bovis polymerase chain reaction analysis, Taenia saginata, zoonotic.

Keywords: cattle, Cysticercus bovis polymerase chain reaction analysis, Taenia saginata, zoonotic.

How to cite this article: El-Sayad MH, Farag H, El-Taweel H, Fadly R, Salama N, Ahmed AA, Abd El-Latif NF (2021) Cysticercus bovis in cattle slaughtered in North Egypt: Overestimation by the visual inspection method, Veterinary World, 14(1): 155-160.

Received: 04-09-2020 Accepted: 01-12-2020 Published online: 20-01-2021

Corresponding author: Naglaa Fathi Abd El-Latif E-mail: dr_naglaafathi@alexu.edu.eg

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2021.155-160

Copyright: El-Sayad, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.