Experimental cerebral and non-cerebral coenurosis in goats: A comparative study on the morphological and molecular characteristics of the parasite

- Both cerebral and non-cerebral cysts, produced similar adult worms in the experimentally infected dogs.
- The obtained eggs from two groups of adult worms were orally inoculated to two groups of goats.
- The morphological and molecular features of the cysts of two different groups were identical.
- T. multiceps is the single origin of both cerebral and non-cerebral forms of Coenurus cerebralis.
- Coenurus multiceps is preferable to Coenurus cerebralis to describe the larval stage of T. multiceps.

This experimental study was conducted to test whether cerebral and non-cerebral forms of Coenurus cerebralis belong to one origin or they are originated from two different tape worms. In the first step of the study, two groups of dogs were orally infected with the protoscoleces of cerebral and non-cerebral cysts and four months after infection, the adult worms were collected and morphologically characterized. Then the obtained eggs from two groups of adult worms were orally inoculated to two groups of goats to trace the predilection sites and also to compare the morphological and molecular characteristics of the larval stage of the parasites. The results showed that, both cerebral and non-cerebral coenuri, produced morphologically similar worms in the experimentally infected dogs. We observed only non-cerebral coenurus cysts in two groups of experimentally infected goats and the morphological characteristics of the cysts of two different groups were also similar. The molecular findings also showed that the cysts of two groups were 100% identical to each other based on the CO1 and nad1 sequences. In conclusion, our morphological and molecular findings reinforce the evidence that Taenia multiceps is the single origin of both cerebral and non-cerebral form of C. cerebralis but in goats, the cysts show more tendency to non-cerebral organs.