Parazitozele hepatice ca factori declanşatori ai colelitiazei la ovine

Abstract

The main objective was to investigate the cases of cholelithiasis in sheep and to identify the etiological and pathogenic links between the formation of calculi and the parasitism in sheep with parasitic diseases: fasciolosis, dicrocoelosis and echinococcosis/hydatidosis or other pathological conditions in the liver (liver abscesses). Another purpose was to describe macroscopic and topographic criteria of the calculi/uroliths in the affected liver. In total, the liver was examined in 175 sheep, from 2 to 5 years old, clinically healthy, randomly selected and slaughtered. All visible concretions detected in the ducts and gall bladder were considered as calculi/uroliths (stones). The macroscopic examination of the liver of slaughtered sheep revealed that, 46 organs were normal, 28 were infested with Fasciola hepatica, 32 were infested with Dicrocoelium dendriticum, 25 presented a mixed infestation by D. dendriticum and F. hepatica, 20 organs had hydatid cysts and were infested with Echinococcus granulosus larvae and had liver abscesses, and in 24 organs there were F. hepatica, D. dendriticum and E. granulosus larvae. Biliary calculi were detected in 40 examined organs. 16 livers had pigment stones and the stones in 24 livers were formed of cholesterol. The incidence of cholelithiasis was significantly higher in the organs infested with trematodes compared with the rest of the detected pathological conditions, and the infestation with F. hepatica and D. dendriticum proved to be major risk factors for the appearance of cholelithiasis in sheep.

Keywords

• sheep
• liver
• bile duct
• cholelithiasis
• aetiology
• liver parasitoses