Indagine sulla Sarcocistosi del cinghiale (Sus scrofa) in sicilia (Survey on wild boar (Sus scrofa) sarcocystosis in Sicily (Italy)

Scopo del presente lavoro è stato quello di valutare l'eventuale presenza di protozoi sarcosporidi in una popolazione di cinghiali abbattuti ella provinci adi Messina e sottolineare l'importanza di questi parassiti nel campo della sanità pubblica. La presenza di Sarcocystis spp. è stata valutata in 59 cinghiali (30 maschi, 29 femmine), regolarmente abbattuti nella provincia di Messina, Sicilia (Italia), attraverso la tecnica di digestione cloridro-peptica di frammenti di cuore, diaframma e muscolo scheletrico. Quarantadue (71.2%) dei 59 animali sono risultati positivi con presenza di Sarcocystis spp.. Tutte sono riconducibili a Sarcocystis mieschieriana. Tra i muscoli esaminati, quelli scheletrici hanno mostrato una frequenza più alta dell'infezione, la più bassa invece è stata rilevata a livello cardiaco. Non sono state evidenziate differenze statisticamente significative sulla presenza di S. mieschieriana in animali di diversa età e sesso differente. Introduction: Wild boars represent wild ungulates more widespread in Italy. Their meat are really appreciated by hunters and several consumers and have a good market. Studies on Sarcocystis spp. presence in wild boars were performed in some Italian regions such as Umbria, Sardinia, Piedmont; their presence has been never investigated in the rich Sicilian population. Aim: The aim of this paper was to perform a survey on Sar-cocystis spp. presence in a wild boar population hunted in the Messina province. The zoonotic potential risk of Sarcocystis spp. was also discussed. Materials and methods: The presence of Sarcocystis spp. infection was investigated in 59 wild boars (30 males, 29 females) shot during a regular hunting-tide in the Messina province, Sicily (Italy). The diagnosis was performed using the peptic digestion of little bit of heart, diaphragm and skeletal muscle. All positive samples were also processed for further histopatholo-gical investigations. The identification of sarcocysts species was made according to morphological features of cystic wall. Results and discussion: Forty-two (71,2%) out of fifty-nine animals were positive for Sarcocystis presence. All positive wild boars were infected by Sarcocystis miescheriana. Among the different organs examined, sarcocyst presence was found to be highest in the skeletal muscle and lowest in the heart. No statistically significant differences on S. miescheriana presence arised between adult and young animals and between males and females. The results of this survey were in agreement with those obtained in previous central regions investigations and highest respect to northern italian region studies. The isolation of S. miescheriana from a point of view limites the potential zoonotic role of the sicilian wild boar meat but for an other hand underlights the possibility to have a problem resulting to a toxic reaction in humans by sarcocyst ingestion. Conclusion: Our experience underlights the need to plug a gap present in the Italian law about control of sarcocystosis infection.