Research in Medicine

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Abstract Background: Visceral larvae migrans (VLM) is the causative agent of acute and sub acute parasitic disease caused by the migration and establishment of second-stage larva of some Toxocara canis and Toxocara cati in human tissues. Human beings become infected by ingesting infective eggs or eating raw liver and heart of paratenic hosts (such as chicken, lamp and cow, etc) containing infective larvae. This disease is a food-borne parasitic infection. Materials and methods: Viscera of 106 partridges of Taleghan region were examined. The liver, lung, spleen and heart were finely minced. Then these were added to a solution containing 1% pepsin & 1% HCL & were incubated at 46˚C for 4 h. The digests were filtered through a system of sieves & centrifuged. Larvae were detected in the sediment & were traced by Lucida camera. Final diagnosis was done with morphologic characters. Results: Larvae were seen in the viscera of 18 partridges (17 %). Their size was between 120-160 micron and they had tubercle-shaped prominence on their ends. The larvae were seen in both the liver and lung, in 77% of infected partridges. In addition, there were larvae with 300-400 micron in one of the partridges. As the size of Toxocara larvae is between 350-450 micron & it has different morphologic characteristics, there were no similarity between the larvae found in these specimens and the larvae of Toxocara. Conclusion: Toxocara larva has been not observed in the area. In considering the issue that birds are important paratenic hosts of this parasite, it is recommended that, the same study is done in other areas. Keywords: Toxocara larva, Partridge, Tissue digestion, Paratenic host.

Keywords: Toxocara larva, Partridge, Tissue digestion, Paratenic host.

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