Dr. Murai Éva - Gubányi András szerk.: Parasitologia Hungarica 28. (Budapest, 1995)
MATERIALS AND METHODS Geographic location: Covasna (Kovászna) County is a high-altitude basin in the south-eastern part of Transylvania. It is surrounded by Eastern Carpathians, the Baraolt (Barót)-Mountains and the Hargita. The area of Covasna County is 375 km 2 , with the number of its inhabitants 210,000, its height above sea level varies from 468 m to 1777 m, the mean annual temperature is 5.8 °C, the annual rainfall is 761.9 mm, and 170,900 hectars (51%) of the area is covered by forest. In order to systematize the studies and to make the results comparable, we divided Covasna County into 5 regions, which are separated geographically, climatologically, and in respect of livestock forming and game biology management: I. Sf. Gheorghe (Sepsiszentgyörgy) zone; II. Tg. Secuiesc (Kézdivásárhely) zone; III. Covasna zone; IV. Baraolt (Bárót) zone; V. Buzanul-Ardelean (Magyarbodza) zone (Fig. 1A). Livestock farming: In the period of study, livestock farming was conducted in state farms and in farmers' cooperatives on a large scale. For the most part of the year, private farmers conduct milk and meat production in the traditional way, or mountain pastures, where domestic animals and game animals of the high-altitude woods encounter infectious agents in shared biotops. The characteristics of the area make it especially suitable for studiing the epidemiology of the two Echinococcus species. Test material: From 1981 to 1990 EH infestation was studied on the basis of only the pathological alterations, and 209,670 cattle, 290,300 sheep and 375,720 swine slaughtered at abattoirs [Sfintu Gheorge (Sepsiszentgyörgy), Tg. Secuiesc] and on private farms situated in the animal health districts were found to be infected (Sikó Barabási 199Id). An aimed study of 35,015 cattle, 20,011 sheep, and 42,403 swine was also carried out (Sikó Barabási and Bokor 1991). The prevalence and intensity of EH cases were evaluated in every single economic unit and at each farm. Complex methods of examination were used in the case of 7,646 cattle. In addition to gross pathological alterations, attention was paid to histopathological changes of the infected organs and lymp nodes as well. The preparations were stained by Ziehl-Neelsen and with haematoxylin-eozin + methylene blue (Sikó Barabási 1985, 1991b, 199Id, Sikó Barabási and Bokor 1991). In EH tests of 5,618 cattle, 8,641 sheep, 5,963 swine and 1,269 intermediate hosts (514 deer, 88 roe-deer, 635 wild boars and 32 bears) were used, the fertility of hydatid cysts was determined with the help of preparations made with Berlese solution. For caseified and calcified cysts modified Gram staining was used. The morphology of detected cysts, the number of cysts per organ and the prevalence rate (%) were also recorded (Sikó 1991c, 199Id). Table 1 Haematologic values of wild boars (n = 10) Normal value Actual value Number of erythrocytes (mil/mm 3 ) Number of leucocytes (/mm 3 ) Eosinophils (%) Haemoglobin (g/ml) 7.6-7.9 10,000-14,000 0.1-1.2 14.2-15.2 18,563-23,800 10.0-14.5 11.0-12.1 4.3-7.0
