Morphological and Morphometrical Description of Trichostrongylus Species Isolated from Domestic Ruminants in Khuzestan Province, Southwest Iran

Backgrounds: Genus Trichostrongylus (Nematoda: Trichostrongylidae) is one of the most impor­tant zoonotic nematodes with wide geographic distribution in the world. The purpose of the present study was to describe morphological and morphometrical characteristics of male Trichostrongylus species, currently prevalent in domestic ruminants of Khuzestan Province, south­west Iran.Methods: Gastro-intestinal organs of 1600 sheep, goats, cattle, and buffalos, slaughtered in Khuzestan Province, southwest Iran, were examined for infectivity with Trichostrongylus spe­cies. For examination and measurements of helminthes, Azo-carmine staining was per­formed, followed by camera lucida drawings of morphological characters and measurements of morphometrical criteria with a calibrated microscope. Using valid nematodes systematic keys, almost all the parasites were identified at the level of species.Results: Overall, 114 animals were found infected with at least one species of Trichostrongy­lus. Considering morphological characteristics of male Trichostrongylus, six species were identi­fied including T. colubriformis, T. vitrinus, T. probolorus, T. capricola, T. longispicu­laris and Trichostrongylus sp. Conclusion: Although, compared to the previous decades, currently Trichostrongylus is much less prevalent in the domestic ruminants of the study area, but still different species occur in these animals

Survey on fungal, parasites and epibionts infestation on the Astacus leptodactylus (Eschscholtz, 1823), in Aras Reservoir West Azarbaijan, Iran

A total of 394 (255 males, 139 females) live freshwater crayfish Astacus leptodactylus from four stations of Aras reservoir in West Azarbaijan Province (North-Western Iran) were studied during the winter until early autumn of 2009 for the presence of parasites, epibionts and fungal agents. Parasitological surveys were carried out on gills, exoskeleton and internal organs, mycological examinations on the exoskeleton (the legs, abdominal cuticle and the eggs). 9 epibionts and parasites peritrich protozoans including: Cothurnia sieboldii (68.5%), Zoothamnium spp. (56.6%), Vorticella similis (45.6%), Chilodonella spp. (0.5%), Podophrya fixa (7.8%), Epistylis chrysemidis (53.2%), Pyxicola annulata (66%), Opercularia articulata (19.8%), Tetrahymena pyriformis (0.5%) were recorded. From Metazoan parasites group, Branchiobdella kozarovi (71%) as the first observation was the only parasite recorded from exoskeleton with prevalence (100%) during spring and summer of the study year. Infected gills were heavily damaged with Aeolosoma hemprichi (Annelid) in winter with 90% prevalence. Other epibiont fouling organisms such as Rotatoria, free living Nematods were observed in this survey. Furthermore, on the mycotic agents identified Penicillium expansum, Aspergillus flavus, Alternaria sp., Fusarium sp. and Saprolegnia sp. were isolated in IM media and identified with slides cultured from cuticular melanized lesions and eggs of infected specimens. This is the first investigation on epibionts, parasites and fungal organisms of the endemic crayfish in Aras reservoir, Iran

DS-KCF: a real-time tracker for RGB-D data

© 2016 The Author(s) We propose an RGB-D single-object tracker, built upon the extremely fast RGB-only KCF tracker that is able to exploit depth information to handle scale changes, occlusions, and shape changes. Despite the computational demands of the extra functionalities, we still achieve real-time performance rates of 35–43 fps in MATLAB and 187 fps in our C++ implementation. Our proposed method includes fast depth-based target object segmentation that enables, (1) efficient scale change handling within the KCF core functionality in the Fourier domain, (2) the detection of occlusions by temporal analysis of the target’s depth distribution, and (3) the estimation of a target’s change of shape through the temporal evolution of its segmented silhouette allows. Finally, we provide an in-depth analysis of the factors affecting the throughput and precision of our proposed tracker and perform extensive comparative analysis. Both the MATLAB and C++ versions of our software are available in the public domain

Determination of Diagnostic Antigens in Cattle Amphistomiasis Using Western Blotting

"nBackground: Mixed infection with amphistomes seems common in native cattle of Iran. The aim of this study was to determine diagnostic antigens in cattle mixed amphistomiasis."nMethods: Specific antigens of Cotylophoron cotylophorum, Gastrothylax crumenifer and Paramphisto­mum cervi (mixed infection), the most common species, were collected from cattle was deter­mined. Adult trematodes were collected from the rumen of naturally infected cattle at meat inspec­tion. After their homogenization and centrifugation, somatic antigens were prepared and ana­lyzed by SDS-PAGE. Specific antigens were determinated by western blot with homologous and heterolo­gous sera. SDS-PAGE of whole worms extract was performed at different concentrations and subse­quent gels staining. Immunoblotting analysis using sera from cattle naturally infected with am­phistomes, Dicrocoelium dendriticum, Fasciola spp. and hydatid cyst was performed."nResults: Electrophorese analysis of somatic antigens revealed the presence of 10 and 21 protein bands at 4 µgr/ml and 8 µgr/ml with molecular weights ranging from 25-120 and 25-150 kDa, respectively. The best result was taken at 8 mg/ml concentration. Although western blot of these proteins demon­strate 5 major antigenic polypeptides ranging from 50 to 100 kDa which were recognized by serum of cat­tle naturally infected with mixed amphistomes

Determination of somatic and excretory-secretory antigens of Fasciola hepatica and Fasciola gigantica using SDS-PAGE

Human fascioliasis due to unknown species and animal fascioliasis caused by both or one of Fasciola spp. are commonly seen in Iran. To compare electrophoretic patterns of somatic and excretory-secretory antigens of F. hepatica and F. gigantica by sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), the adult flukes were collected from infected slaughtered bovine livers. E/S and somatic antigens were prepared by incubation and homogenizing of adult flukes, respectively. The antigens were electrophoresed using SDS-PAGE. Following SDS-PAGE, E/S proteins of F. hepatica and F. gigantica were characterized by the presence of 6 common major peptide bands with molecular weights of 15, 16, 20, 24, 33 and 42 kDa. Differences between F. hepatica and F. gigantica somatic proteins were noticed. F. gigantica had 11 major protein bands with molecular weights of 18, 22, 24, 33, 36, 42, 46, 57, 60, 62 and 68 kDa, whereas F. hepatica had proteins characterized by 8 distinct bands with molecular weights of 18, 22, 24, 33, 36, 42, 46 and 62 kDa.Meshgi, B., Eslami, A. and Hemmatzadeh, F

Molecular and morphological characterization of Parabronema skrjabini of sheep and goats at three different geographical zones in Iran

Parabronema skrjabini is a spirurid nematode of the family Habronematidae that lives in the abomasum of ruminants such as sheep and goats. The purpose of this study was to investigate the molecular and morphological aspects of Parabronema skrjabini in sheep and goats in Iran. The worms were collected from these animal species from three different regions. An internal transcribed spacer 2 ribosomal DNA (ITS2-rDNA) fragment of Parabronema skrjabini was amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using a pair of specific primers (Para-Ir-R and Para-Ir-F). Morphological studies based on the body length, the frontal shield, spicules of male and egg dimensions were performed. ITS2-rDNA sequences were between 167 and 299bp in different isolates. ITS2 homology in different isolates was between 68 % and 77% compared with the sequence data in GenBank. Morphological results showed that the average length of male and female worms in sheep were 16.5mm and 36mm and in goats 16mm and 35.5mm, respectively. The average length of the small and large spicules in sheep were 657.5μm and 304.07μm and in goats 653.08μm and 302.66μm, respectively. To our knowledge, this is the first study in the world exploring the genetic diversity of Parabronema in sheep and goats. Add this sentence in discussion: the low ITS2-rDNA identity in different isolates from Iran as compared to the reference sequence in GenBank (68–77%) raise questions regarding the species identity of the parasites isolated in Iran

Comparative assessment of electrophoretic patterns of fasciola somatic antigens in different hosts

To determine the electrophoretic patterns of Fasciola hepatita and F. gigantica, the former was collected from sheep and buffalo infected liver and the latter from that of cattle and camel and were washed in PBS. Somatic antigens of both species were prepared though homogenization and centrifugation of adult flukes. To show the eclrophoretic patterns of somatic antigens, the prepared antigens were electrophoresed using SDS-PAGE. Our findings revealed that proteins of 18-70 kDa molecular weights were present in both species in different hosts. Although a 57 kDa protein was seen in Fasciola gigantica of cattle and camel only. Meanwhile two bands of 54 and 68 kDa were seen exclusively in F.hepatica of sheep and buffalo. A band of 64 kDa was shown in F.hepatica of buffalo. According to our results in any study on immunological or immunodiagnostic of Fasciola spp, the species trematode as well as their hosts should be taken in consideration.B. Meshgi, A. Eslami, S.H. Hossieni, F. Hemmatzadeh and E. Hooshman

Biodiversity and Prevalence of Parasites of Rook (Corvus frugilegus) in Iran

Background: Rooks are distributed all over Iran and no information is available in the literature on their parasitic infec­tions. Methods: One hundred twenty five rooks were examined at post-mortem for parasitic infections.Results: Two species of cestodes, 5 species of nematodes and 4 species of protozoa were found of which all were new host and distribution record. Conclusion: Rooks have several parasites of which some are common with other domestic birds and some have zoonotic importance

Regional frequency analysis of extreme rainfalls using partial L moments method

An approach based on regional frequency analysis using L moments and LH moments are revisited in this study. Subsequently, an alternative regional frequency analysis using the partial L moments (PL moments) method is employed, and a new relationship for homogeneity analysis is developed. The results were then compared with those obtained using the method of L moments and LH moments of order two. The Selangor catchment, consisting of 37 sites and located on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia, is chosen as a case study. PL moments for the generalized extreme value (GEV), generalized logistic (GLO), and generalized Pareto distributions were derived and used to develop the regional frequency analysis procedure. PL moment ratio diagram and Z test were employed in determining the best-fit distribution. Comparison between the three approaches showed that GLO and GEV distributions were identified as the suitable distributions for representing the statistical properties of extreme rainfall in Selangor. Monte Carlo simulation used for performance evaluation shows that the method of PL moments would outperform L and LH moments methods for estimation of large return period events