[Field survey of sarcocystis infection in the Tibet autonomous region].

Abstract

Fecal specimens of 926 persons from Duilongdeqing, Milin and Linzhi counties of Tibet were examined by the zinc sulfate flotation method. The prevalences of Sarcocystis hominis in the three counties were 20.5%, 22.5% and 22.9% respectively (P greater than 0.05), with an average of 21.8%, and those of Sarcocystis suihominis were 0, 0.6% and 7.0% respectively (P less than 0.01). No significant difference in infection rate was found between different age or sex groups. Sarcocystis was detected in 42.9% of beef specimens from the market. Obviously, sarcocystis infection in Tibetans is usually caused by eating raw or undercooked beef or pork. The infected cases were generally asymptomatic, 9/10 and 5/5 of cases showed negative stool examination one month after being treated by sulfadiazine or finidazole respectively.