Technology and Research Information System

Blastocystis is an anaerobic protozoan parasite of global importance that potentially infects a wide range of hosts such as mammals including humans, birds, fish, amphibians, reptiles, rodents, and even invertebrates. This protozoan is the most common parasite reported from the human intestine.The high prevalence of blastocystis may be due to the lack of clinical interest of doctors to treat self-limiting cases caused by this parasite or the emergence of resistant isolates.The route of transmission of infection is still not fully understood, but faecal-oral transmission seems to be the main route of transmission. In addition, transmission through water, food, human-to-human, animal-to-human, and human-to-animal transmission has also been reported.Consumption of contaminated food or water, poor sanitary conditions, immune status of the host, and exposure to animals are considered to be the main risk factors for blastocystis infection. So far, based on the investigation of the polymorphic regions of the small ribosomal RNA subunit gene, 28 definitive subtypes (subtypes) of Blastocystis have been identified, among which ten subtypes ST1-ST9 and ST12 have been identified in humans.In addition, ST1-ST4 are the most common subtypes reported from humans, and ST3 is the most important cause of human infections. Due to the great genetic diversity and the zoonotic nature of some subtypes of the Blastocystis parasite, various studies have been conducted on the feces samples of different animals worldwide.Unfortunately, there is not much information about the prevalence and distribution of Blastocystis parasite subtypes in Iranian animals, especially cattle and sheep, and only a few studies have been conducted in this field.These hosts are very close to human life and can be a reservoir for this parasitic infection and cause contamination of water and food, different animals and humans, therefore, the present study aims to investigate the comparative molecular prevalence, distribution of subtypes , related risk factors and zoonotic importance of this parasitic infection in cattle and sheep hosts in Ilam city were designed.