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Assessing the economic importance of each such parasite species requires proper diagnosis. <jats:italic>Sarcocystis<\/jats:italic>\n              <jats:italic>cruzi,<\/jats:italic> a thin-walled species, infects virtually all cattle. The prevalence of the other thin-walled parasite, <jats:italic>Sarcocystis<\/jats:italic>\n              <jats:italic>heydorni<\/jats:italic>, remains less well established. The remaining six species all have thick (&gt;\u20093\u00a0\u00b5m) cyst walls (<jats:italic>Sarcocystis<\/jats:italic>\n              <jats:italic>hirsuta,<\/jats:italic>\n              <jats:italic>S.<\/jats:italic>\n              <jats:italic>hominis,<\/jats:italic>\n              <jats:italic>S.<\/jats:italic>\n              <jats:italic>bovifelis,<\/jats:italic>\n              <jats:italic>S.<\/jats:italic>\n              <jats:italic>bovini,<\/jats:italic>\n              <jats:italic>S.<\/jats:italic>\n              <jats:italic>sigmoideus<\/jats:italic>, and <jats:italic>S.<\/jats:italic>\n              <jats:italic>rommeli<\/jats:italic>). Thick-walled sarcocysts often induce inflammation in striated muscles (causing bovine eosinophilic myositis), leading to condemnation of carcasses at slaughter. One of these, <jats:italic>S.<\/jats:italic>\n              <jats:italic>hirsuta<\/jats:italic>, can be seen macroscopically and lead to condemnation of beef. Two <jats:italic>Sarcocystis<\/jats:italic> species, <jats:italic>S.<\/jats:italic>\n              <jats:italic>hominis<\/jats:italic> and <jats:italic>S.<\/jats:italic>\n              <jats:italic>heydorni<\/jats:italic>, are zoonotic. Although <jats:italic>S.<\/jats:italic>\n              <jats:italic>hominis<\/jats:italic> has been reported as prevalent in Europe, the occurrence of thick-walled species in the US remains poorly known. Here, for the first time to our knowldge, we characterize a thick-walled <jats:italic>Sarcocystis<\/jats:italic> species from a sample of beef from a local grocery store in Maryland. By morphological and genetic criteria, it closely, but not perfectly, resembles parasites previously ascribed to <jats:italic>S.<\/jats:italic>\n              <jats:italic>bovifelis<\/jats:italic>.<\/jats:p>\n          <\/jats:sec>\n          <jats:sec>\n            <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n            <jats:p>Beef samples were examined for <jats:italic>Sarcocystis<\/jats:italic> infection, using acid-pepsin digestion to search for bradyzoites, microscopically by compression between a glass slide and coverslip, by histology of paraffin embedded sections stained with hematoxylin and eosin, and by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Molecular characterization was attempted employing genetic markers: <jats:italic>18S<\/jats:italic> rRNA, <jats:italic>28S<\/jats:italic> rRNA, <jats:italic>cox1<\/jats:italic>, <jats:italic>ITS1<\/jats:italic>, <jats:italic>gapdh1<\/jats:italic>, <jats:italic>ron3<\/jats:italic>, and <jats:italic>rpoB<\/jats:italic>.<\/jats:p>\n          <\/jats:sec>\n          <jats:sec>\n            <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n            <jats:p>Molecular evaluation revealed 100% identity with <jats:italic>S.<\/jats:italic>\n              <jats:italic>bovifelis<\/jats:italic>-like sarcocysts from naturally infected cattle from Germany and Argentina; although the condition of the frozen material precludes complete characterization by TEM, we noted morphological features which differed from the <jats:italic>S.<\/jats:italic>\n              <jats:italic>bovifelis<\/jats:italic> originally described from experimentally infected cattle from Germany.<\/jats:p>\n          <\/jats:sec>\n          <jats:sec>\n            <jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n            <jats:p>A novel <jats:italic>Sarcocystis<\/jats:italic> species is described from beef from the USA but not named until further evaluation.<\/jats:p>\n          <\/jats:sec>\n          <jats:sec>\n            <jats:title>Graphical Abstract<\/jats:title>\n          <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1186\/s13071-024-06628-4","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,12,28]],"date-time":"2024-12-28T12:28:52Z","timestamp":1735388932000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":10,"title":["Morphological and molecular characterization of a Sarcocystis bovifelis-like sarcocyst in American beef"],"prefix":"10.1186","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Aditya","family":"Gupta","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Larissa S.","family":"de Araujo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Andrew","family":"Hemphill","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Asis","family":"Khan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Benjamin M.","family":"Rosenthal","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jitender P.","family":"Dubey","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,12,28]]},"reference":[{"key":"6628_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"463","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ijpara.2022.09.009","volume":"53","author":"JP Dubey","year":"2023","unstructured":"Dubey JP, Rosenthal BM. 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