Molecular Identification and Prevalence of Sarcocystis Suihominis in Pork Meat Intended for Public Consumption

Abstract

Protozoa of the genus Sarcocystis are among the most prevalent parasitic forms found in pork. In order to rapidly assess the risk that this protozoa produce in human population, a molecular method to detect and identify Sarcocystis suihominis needs to be implemented. The study aimed at characterizing the prevalence of Sarcocystis suihominis in pork obtained in the traditional households through PCR - RFLP method. The material was represented by seventy nine samples of diaphragmatic pillars collected between the period October 2014 - December 2014 from two local sanitary veterinary units from Alba and Cluj. The samples were processed first by trichinelloscopic compression method. All the positive fragments for Sarcocystis spp. were examined through PCR-RFLP method. The method used in the present study utilized the AluI restriction enzyme and had successfully differentiate the Sarcocystis suihominis from other Sarcocystis spp. prevalent in pork meat. The inspection of compressed muscle tissue has detected the presence of Sarcocystis suihominis in a high percentage of investigated samples. The prevalence of Sarcocystis suihominis in the examined samples was 26.58%. According to this result we can affirm that the risk of contamination in humans with Sarcocystis suihominis is high through consumption of contaminated pork meat, raised in the traditional system. In the present scientific research, we demonstrated that this method used for molecular identification of Sarcocystis suihominis has high accuracy and can be successfully applied for obtaining a certain diagnostic.