Coenurosis In Goats Research Articles

The Prevalence and Determinants of Taenia multiceps Infection (Cerebral Coenurosis) in Small Ruminants in Africa: A Systematic Review

Cerebral coenurosis is a fatal parasitic neurological disease affecting the brain and spinal cord of goats and sheep. Despite the large population of sheep and goats in Africa, there is very little awareness about the scale or effects of the disease. A systematic review was conducted to bridge the gap in the current understanding of the epidemiology of Taenia multiceps coenurosis in Africa. A detailed literature search was conducted in EBSCOhost, Google Scholar, Research4life (AGORA), and PubMed for studies in T. multiceps coenurosis in goats and sheep in Africa for the period spanning January 2000 to December 2019. The search identified 574 publications, of which only 11 studies were eligible, highlighting major gaps in reporting of this disease in Africa. Data were extracted and evidence synthesized in relation to prevalence and determinants for T. multiceps coenurosis. The descriptive summary statistics revealed a median (IQR) prevalence of coenurosis of 22.3% (range: 18.3–26.4 percent) for community based and 14.8% (range: 3.8–45.6) for abattoir-based studies. This high prevalence indicates that Taenia multiceps coenurosis is an important disease for small ruminant productivity in Africa. Knowledge of the determinants of prevalence could be used to inform preventive measures, including behaviour change among livestock keepers and those involved in livestock slaughter to break cycles of transmission between small ruminants and dogs.

First report of an outbreak of cerebral coenurosis in Dhofari goats in Oman.

This study documented the first outbreak of cerebral coenurosis in goats in Salalah, southern Oman. Deaths of 130 (16.6%) adult native goats in a herd (n=780) were reported from January to June 2017. Affected goats showed various nervous signs ended by death. Investigations for thiamine deficiency, polioencephalomalacia, caprine arthritis encephalitis, and listeriosis were negative. Upon necropsy, multiple (1-4) thin-walled cysts 2-3.5 cm in diameter containing clear fluid with numerous clusters of protoscolices in the cerebrum and cerebellum had replaced the brain parenchyma, causing space-occupying lesions. Parasitologically, the recovered cysts were Coenurus cerebralis, based on the arrangement of protoscolices, and the number and size of their hooks. Morphologically, each protoscolex had four suckers and a rostellum with double-crown hooks. The large and small hooks were 157.7±0.5 µm and 115±0.6 µm in length, respectively. Histopathologically, the parasite destroyed the affected tissues associated with multifocal to diffuse lymphocytic, non-suppurative meningoencephalitis; ischemic neuronal necrosis; and malacia. This is the first report of cerebral coenurosis in livestock in Oman, which should alert the local public health authorities for the application of prevention and control measures.

Surgical Management of Non-Cerebral Coenurosis in Goats in the Foothills of Arunachal Pradesh, India

Surgical Management of Non-Cerebral Coenurosis in Goats in the Foothills of Arunachal Pradesh, India

Abattoir survey on extra-cerebral coenurosis in goats

Summary Out of 19,046 goats aged between 5 and 6 month and slaughtered at an abattoir in Dubai between September 2012 and March 2014, 57 carcasses were objected at meat inspection due to the presence of bladder worms of the coenurus type. The majority showed single cysts that were cut out but 10 carcasses had to be discharged due to the presence of multiple cysts and with a maximum number of 41 coenuri. In the majority of carcasses, cysts were located in the legs (n=45) followed by abdominal muscles (n=16), diaphragm (n=14) and shoulder (n=13). Loin, rack, renal fat, heart, neck, masseter were other cyst locations. The size of the detected parasitic cysts ranged from 0.7 ml to 90 ml. The maximum number of 1,102 scolices was counted in an 86 ml coenurus found in the leg of a goat. Cysticercus tenuicollis was another cestode larval stage found in livers of 302 goats. A mixed infection with both parasites was detected in 35 carcasses.

Experimental cerebral and non-cerebral coenurosis in goats: A comparative study on the morphological and molecular characteristics of the parasite

This experimental study was conducted to test whether cerebral and non-cerebral forms of Coenurus cerebralis belong to one origin or they are originated from two different tape worms. In the first step of the study, two groups of dogs were orally infected with the protoscoleces of cerebral and non-cerebral cysts and four months after infection, the adult worms were collected and morphologically characterized. Then the obtained eggs from two groups of adult worms were orally inoculated to two groups of goats to trace the predilection sites and also to compare the morphological and molecular characteristics of the larval stage of the parasites. The results showed that, both cerebral and non-cerebral coenuri, produced morphologically similar worms in the experimentally infected dogs. We observed only non-cerebral coenurus cysts in two groups of experimentally infected goats and the morphological characteristics of the cysts of two different groups were also similar. The molecular findings also showed that the cysts of two groups were 100% identical to each other based on the CO1 and nad1 sequences. In conclusion, our morphological and molecular findings reinforce the evidence that Taenia multiceps is the single origin of both cerebral and non-cerebral form of C. cerebralis but in goats, the cysts show more tendency to non-cerebral organs.

Characteristics of non-cerebral coenurosis in tropical goats

The epidemiological, clinical, and biochemical profile of non-cerebral coenurosis in goats and the morphological characteristics of the responsible metacestodes (cysts) were examined in a cross-sectional survey of slaughtered goats in abattoirs of the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) originating from Abu Dhabi and various tropical countries. The age, country of origin, and location of each cyst in the body of goats were recorded. Blood samples collected from infected and matching healthy goats were subjected to biochemical analysis. Data on the morphological characteristics of the cysts as well as the clusters, scoleces, and rostellar hooks in one cyst from each affected carcass were collected. The data collected were subjected to statistical analysis. A total of 2,284 slaughtered goats were examined and 40 goats were diagnosed as infected with non-cerebral coenurus cysts. The prevalence of non-cerebral coenurosis was 1.75% and the degree of parasite aggregation (k) was 0.003, which is indicative of overdispersion (k<1). The only abnormalities observed in the infected goats were palpation of large single cysts in thigh muscles and higher serum aspartate aminotransferase (AST) value. A total of 76 non-cerebral coenurus cysts from 14 different body locations were collected. No cysts were found in the brain or spinal cord. Cysts located in psoas muscles had on average significantly bigger volumes and higher numbers of scoleces and clusters compared to cysts located in other body parts (P-value=0.000). Significant differences in the morphometric measurements of the rostellar hooks were observed between cysts found in goats from different countries of origin (P-value<0.05) perhaps due to initial steps of allopatric speciation by geographic isolation. A significant positive correlation was found between number of scoleces and volume of cysts (b=6.37>5; R-Sq=89.4%; P-value=0.000) and between number of clusters and number of scoleces (b=25.13>1; R-Sq=79.8%; P-value=0.000) indicative of following a positive allometric growth as well as between number of clusters and volume of cysts (b=0.25<0.5; R-Sq=69.4%; P-value=0.000) indicative of following a negative allometric growth. The biological significance of the observed allometries is not known, but perhaps for evolutionary reasons the parasite is investing its resources more on the growth of scoleces, less on the growth of cyst volume, and even less on the number of clusters.

Intramuscular and subcutaneous coenurosis in goats and sheep in south-east Iran

A 1-year study was conducted in a Kerman slaughterhouse over four seasons between 2009 and 2010. In this study, 66,114 slaughtered sheep and 47,805 slaughtered goats were carefully inspected for the presence of intramuscular or subcutaneous coenurosis cysts. Additionally, the skull of infected animals was also inspected for the presence of brain cysts. Suspected samples were transported in formalin to the food hygiene controlling lab. For each sample, characteristics of the coenurosis cyst such as number, size and scolex were determined. According to the results, 36 (0.03 %) carcasses were infected, 32 goats (0.07 %) and four sheep (0.01 %). There was a significant difference in size (length and width) of the cyst and number of scolex between goats and sheep (p 0.05). This is the first report of non-cerebral coenurosis in sheep in Iran.

Molecular characterization of subcutaneous and muscular coenurosis of goats in United Arab Emirates

Coenurosis is a parasitic disease caused by the larval stage of Taenia multiceps, which affects various ruminants species, particularly sheep and goats, and occasionally humans. In this note, non-cerebral coenurosis in goats with the goal to compare morphological and biomolecular characteristics is focused in order to determine if the non-cerebral specimens should be considered a new specie or a strain of T. multiceps. Three hundred goats slaughtered with macroscopic lesions due to the presence of metacestodes were examined in an abattoir in Dubai, United Arab Emirates in order to evaluate the presence of extra-cerebral coenuri. Forty-eight coenuri were found under the skin, between fasciae of the skeletal muscles, diaphragm and in the abdominal cavities. Morphologically, the examined non-cerebral coenuri recovered showed the same features reported by other authors for Coenurus cerebralis, but their location outside the central nervous system suggests that they may be a different strain or genetic variants of T. multiceps. Nine caprine coenuri were then processed for sequencing of mitochondrial partial COI (396 bp) and ND1 (471 bp) genes indicating that they had a pairwise distance of 1.0–1.3% and 2.4–4.1% compared with parasite’ COI sequences from Italy (Tm1–Tm3 strains) and Erzurum strains of ovine origin, respectively; whereas it had 0.6–1.3% and 0.4–1.1% pairwise distance for ND1. Phylogenetic trees of their ND1 and COI sequences using the maximum composite likelihood method with MEGA showed that these nine parasites recovered in Emirates abattoir could be grouped into a new strain. In conclusion, morphological and molecular characterization of caprine coenurosis from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, shows that the specimens are significantly different from other strains or genotypes in COI sequence, which suggests that they should belong to different genotypes or strains of T. multiceps.

Non-cerebral coenurosis in goats

Three hundred carcasses of young goats aged between 3 and 6 months were found to be infested with cysts at routine meat inspection at an abattoir in Dubai in 2008. Two types of cestode larvae were situated in the liver, abdominal cavities, under the skin and between the fasciae of the skeletal muscles. Sixty-two typical coenuri loaded with multiple scolices (between 46 and 474) and situated in clusters (between 6 and 17) at the inner membrane of the bladder were recorded in numbers between one and 12 in 30 animals. The volume of coenuri cysts varied between one and 40 ml. The rostellum of 300-400 microm in diameter carried 26 to 32 hooks arranged in two circles. The average length of larger and smaller hooks was 160 and 114 microm, respectively. All other metacestodes were determined as Cysticercus tenuicollis. Although the structure of coenuri and the measurements of scolices were identical with Coenurus cerebralis, the location of these metacestodes outside the central nervous system, suggests that these larvae might belong to a different strain of Multiceps multiceps or even to a closely related species.