Fascioliasis among local and imported sheep in Saudi Arabia: parasitological and serological diagnosis.

Eight-hundred-twelve local and imported sheep, slaughtered at Riyadh abattoir, were subjected for parasitological diagnosis of fascioliasis by detection of eggs in the stool and worms in the liver and for serological diagnosis by detection of circulating anti-Fasciola IgG (CAFIgG) and circulating Fasciola antigens (CFAgs) using the indirect ELISA and the double antibody sandwich ELISA respectively. Detection of eggs revealed 13.5% infection rate compared with 21.9% by detection of worms (p<0.001). Infection rate was significantly higher (p<0.001) among the imported sheep (15.1%) than among the local ones (4.96%). Positivity for CAFIgG was 64.3% among all sheep while that of CFAgs was 30.2% (p<0.001). Sheep passing Fasciola eggs showed positivity of 99.1% for CAFIgG and 87.3% for CFAgs (p<0.05). Sheep free from any parasitic eggs showed positivity of 61.2% for CAFIgG and 21.1% for CFAgs. There was a highly significant association (p<0.001) between positivity of both CAFIgG and CFAgs and positivity of eggs in the stool.