Phenotypic description and prevalence of Fasciola species in Qena Governorate, Egypt with special reference to a new strain of Fasciola hepatica

During the present study morphological description was done for the adult flukes and their eggs and information on the prevalence and worm burden per liver were given. From 11 local cows, five imported cows, one local buffalo, and one local sheep, liver have been examined for the abundance. Overall, we collected 254 Fasciola worms from different slaughterhouses in Qena Governorate: 68.89% were morphologically identified as Fasciola gigantica, 30.32% as Fasciola hepatica and two worms (0.79%) were designated as representing a new strain of F. hepatica. The abundance (= worm burden) of F. gigantica in cows was 12 worms/liver, 60 worms/liver in buffalo and 30 worms/liver in sheep. Worm burden of F. hepatica in cows were 9.7 in average. F. hepatica has not encountered in buffaloes or sheep. The F. hepatica new strain was collected from one imported cow. Only one imported cow harboured F. gigantica (five worms), where F. hepatica worms were encountered in three imported cows (worm burden 5, 14, 28) and from five local cows (6 worms/liver). This study documents the existence of two common liver flukes species in addition to a new strain of F. hepatica. Also the size of eggs is not suitable for species identification and the ratio between the size of the egg and the size of the mother worm is not proportional.