The dissemination and histopathological diagnosis sarcocystosis in sheep slaughtered in slaughterhouses in Manisa and Aydin

Sarcocystosis is a parasitic agent that frequently causes disease in sheep and also have zoonotic feature. In this study, it was aimed to determine the intensity, age interval, prevalance and localization in the body of disease and thus to determine the importance of the disease in terms of animal husbandry. Tongue, oesophageal, heart and skeletal muscle tissues were collected from randomly selected 100 sheeps (58 lambs in 5-6 months year old and 42 sheeps in 2 years old) that were slaughtered in Manisa and Aydin Municipality slaughterhouses. Macrocysts were not observed but microcysts were found in 97% of the overall samples. Microcycts were found at least one sample in each sheep tissue, so were it was decided that sheeps were infected 100% with sarcocyst and in lambs; microcysts were found (94,82%). Microcyst formation in lambs are in; tongue (81,03%), skeletal muscle (75,86%), heart muscle (70,68%), and oesophagus (55,17%). The distribution of microcysts among tissues in sheeps, was skeletal muscle (97.61%), heart (95.23%), oesophagus (90.47%) and tongue (88.09%), respectively. The degree of infection is classified as slight, moderate and severe (heavily). Occurance of slight infection in lambs by tissue varieties is; skeletal muscle (62.06%), oesophagus (53.44%), heart and tongue (50%) while. Moderate intensity of infection is; tongue (18.96%), heart (13.79%), skeletal muscle (12.06%) and oesophageal tissue (1.72%). And also occurance of severe infection in the tissues is; tongue (12.06%), heart (6.89%), skeletal muscle (1.72%) and was not found in oesophagus. The tissues of tissues (two old sheep) examined for infection severity; the occurance of slight infection in tissues was determined as oesophagus (57.14%), skeletal muscle (52.38%), heart (40.47%) and tongue (28.57%). The occurance of moderate infection in the tissues is were found as tongue (52.38%), skeletal muscle (42.85%), oesophagus (28.57%) and heart (23.8%) while. The occurance of severe infection in tissues were found as; heart (30.95%), tongue (7.14%), oesophagus (4.76%) and skeletal muscle (2.38%).