Prevalence of hydatidosis in slaughtered animals from North Jordan.

The prevalence of hydatid disease was investigated in 704 sheep, 391 goats, 280 cattle and 68 camels slaughtered at two abattoirs in North Jordan. The infection rates for these animals were 4.0, 3.6, 11.4 and 8.8%, respectively. In general, older animals had higher infection rates than younger ones. The percentage of infected animals that had fertile cysts was 66.7% in camels, 34.3% in cattle, 28.6% in goats and 7.1% in sheep. Out of 143 single cysts recovered from cattle, 52.4% were fertile; 29.2% of cysts in goats, 14.7% of cysts in camels and 8.0% of those in sheep were fertile. However, infected sheep had more fertile multiple cysts than other animals. The lung was the predominant location for hydatid cysts in camels. In cattle and goats more hydatid cysts were found in the lung than in the liver, while in sheep the reverse was true.