an epidemiological survey of setaria in the abdominal cavities of iranian sistani and brahman cattle in the southeastern of iran.

background : in this experiment, abdominal cavity of 518 iranian sistani cattle and 498 brahman cattle were inspected for the presence of setaria spp. from april 2012 - may 2013. methods: the species were determined by microscopic examination of the mor-phological characteristics of the anterior and posterior parts of the parasites and authentic guidelines. results: the overall prevalence of setaria spp . was 28.6% and 36.5%, respectively and this difference was significant ( p <0.05). out of 148 sistani cattle which were infected with setaria , 51(34.4%) were infected with s. digitata , 31 (20.9%) were in-fected with s. labiatopapillosa, 65 (43.9%) showed mixed infection of s . digitata and s. labiatopapillosa and one case (0.6%) was infected with mixed infection of s. labiato-papillosa, s. digitata and s. marshalli . these values were 87 (47.8%), 27 (14.8%), 67 (36.8%) and 1 (0.5%) for 182 infected brahaman cows, respectively. the propor-tion of infected cattle in spring and summer was greater than cooler season (au-tumn and winter) significantly ( p< 0.001). the prevalence of infection with setaria in 2-3 years old sistatni cattle (42.2 %) was greater than other age categories ( p< 0.05). furthermore, the infection rate between males (25.5%) and females (37.3%) iranian sistani cattle showed significant difference ( p =0.009). conclusion: it is important to point out the presence of cerebrospinal setariosis, namely in sheep, goats and horses in the investigated area.