Molecular characterization of Sarcocystis species Isolated from sheep in Al-Qadisiyah Governorate – Iraq

Sarcocystis is a disease that affects both humans and animals alike(Dubey, Calero-Bernal, et al., 2015). the parasite needs to complete its life cycle two hosts(El-Dakhly et al., 2011). a definitive host represented by carnivores(Prakas & Butkauskas, 2012).and an intermediate host herbivores(Motamedi et al., 2020). belonging to the phylum Apicomplexa(Rubiola et al., 2021). Sporozoasida Class(Shnawa & Swar, 2021). During the current study period, a collection of 415 sheep heads to check for infection Sarcocystosis. The diagnostic test is carried out in two ways Examination was carried out first with the naked eye ,and secondly with a light microscope. The first method recorded an infection rate of (7.46%) , While it was recorded by the microscopic method, the percentage of Sarcocystosis cases was 95.18%. Male sheep recorded a percentage of infection with macroscopic Sarcocystis that amounted to 2.73%. In comparison, the percentage of infection in females was 11.71%, with significant differences under the level of significance(p<0.05). between male and female infections. The molecular study also proved that sheep were infected with the parasite Sarcocystis type S.tenella. Sarcocystis is a zoonotic infection caused (Dubey, 2015)by different species of the genus Sarcocystis(Mousa et al., 2021).