Molecular characterization of subcutaneous and muscular coenurosis of goats in United Arab Emirates

Coenurosis is a parasitic disease caused by the larval stage of Taenia multiceps, which affects various ruminants species, particularly sheep and goats, and occasionally humans. In this note, non-cerebral coenurosis in goats with the goal to compare morphological and biomolecular characteristics is focused in order to determine if the non-cerebral specimens should be considered a new specie or a strain of T. multiceps. Three hundred goats slaughtered with macroscopic lesions due to the presence of metacestodes were examined in an abattoir in Dubai, United Arab Emirates in order to evaluate the presence of extra-cerebral coenuri. Forty-eight coenuri were found under the skin, between fasciae of the skeletal muscles, diaphragm and in the abdominal cavities. Morphologically, the examined non-cerebral coenuri recovered showed the same features reported by other authors for Coenurus cerebralis, but their location outside the central nervous system suggests that they may be a different strain or genetic variants of T. multiceps. Nine caprine coenuri were then processed for sequencing of mitochondrial partial COI (396 bp) and ND1 (471 bp) genes indicating that they had a pairwise distance of 1.0-1.3% and 2.4-4.1% compared with parasite' COI sequences from Italy (Tm1-Tm3 strains) and Erzurum strains of ovine origin, respectively; whereas it had 0.6-1.3% and 0.4-1.1% pairwise distance for ND1. Phylogenetic trees of their ND1 and COI sequences using the maximum composite likelihood method with MEGA showed that these nine parasites recovered in Emirates abattoir could be grouped into a new strain. In conclusion, morphological and molecular characterization of caprine coenurosis from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, shows that the specimens are significantly different from other strains or genotypes in COI sequence, which suggests that they should belong to different genotypes or strains of T. multiceps.