ABSTRACT

This study was carried out between March 2004- April 2005 to determine the prevalance of liver trematode infections of equids in different cities of Turkey.

A total of 117 equids (72 horses, 39 donkeys and 6 mules) in Ankara were examined for liver parasites after the slaugthering process. On the other hand, a total of 620 feces of horses in Bursa, Gemlik, Malatya, Eskişehir and Ankara provinces were detected for determining liver trematodes in live equines. The fecal samples of horses were examined for liver fluke infection by Benedect’s sedimentation methods.

Of these 117 equids, 6 equids (5.1%) were infected with liver flukes. The liver flukes were found only in donkeys. Infection rates were found to be Fasciola hepatica 2.6%, Dicrocoelium dendriticum 12.8% in donkeys.Trematode eggs were encountered in these horses. The distribution of liver fluke infections was found to be very low. For this reason, the importance of the results for the groups of different age (young-old) and sex (male-female) were not determined.

This study determinated the prevalance of the liver trematodes to be low in the equines, higher in donkeys than in horses and no clinical signs due to the number of parasites which cause helminthosis.

Keywords: Trematode, liver, equine