Prevalence and organwise distribution of sarcocystiosis in buffaloes of Mohali, Punjab

The study was carried at Mirha Exports private limited at Mohali, Punjab, from December 2012 to May 2013 during which 1000 buffaloes of 2–3 years of age slaughtered for meat purposes were screened for the Sarcocystis species. Most of the animals examined at anti-mortem appeared normal and clinically healthy. However, at slaughtering, the gross and microscopic examination of representative samples of striated muscles collected from slaughtered buffaloes revealed 95.50 % prevalence of Sarcocystis species. Out of 1000 samples examined, 955 samples (95.55 %) were infected with microscopic cysts with size ranging from 19.1 to 95.9 × 10.2 to 68.9 μm cyst, while 6 samples (0.60 %) had mixed infection with macroscopic cyst with size ranging from 1270 to 19,000 × 700 to 7000 μm cyst of white or creamy colour and microscopic cysts. Among the muscles infected with cysts, highest number of cysts were recorded in tongue muscles (87.40 %) followed by oesophageal muscles (83.60 %), cardiac muscles (53 %) and diaphragmatic muscles (31.30 %).