A comparative study of sheep infected with Echinococcus granulosus and Taenia hydatigena using antigenic based ELISA and postmortem analyses

The present work was performed to examine the presence of cystic Echinococcus granulosus and Taenia hydatigena in sheep using antigenic based indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (iELISA) and postmortem analyses. For this purpose, the blood samples of 120 sheep from Afak, Dagharah and Diwaniyah cities were taken. The results showed that, for Afak, 20 and 23 samples were respectively positive for the parasitic antigens and for Dagarah and Diwanyiah, 18 and 22, and 22 and 22 samples were respectively positive for both parasitic antigens. The specificity values recorded were 50 and 63.3%, respectively. In the postmortem examination (PM), the results showed a lower presence of the parasites. Based on the results, ELISA provides a better method for the clinical detection of sheep infected with E. granulosus or C. tenuicollis.