Trichinellosis is a worldwide food-borne parasitic disease caused by eating raw or
undercooked meat containing the infective larvae of Trichinella nematodes. Our study is
concerned with assessing the prophylactic effect of probiotics on skeletal muscle degeneration
in T. spiralis experimentally. Fifty mice were divided into five groups (ten mice each)
classified as normal control group, infected control group, probiotic treated group, Ivermectin
treated group and combined probiotic and Ivermectin treated group. Assessment of
effectiveness of different treating agents used was done by parasitological, histopathological,
and molecular assessments. The parasitological assessment was achieved through detection
and counting of T.spiralis adult in intestinal fluid samples and encapsulated larvae in tongue
and diaphragm muscles. Also, histopathological assessments were carried on tongue and
diaphragm muscles and molecular assessments was done though myogenin expression. The
results showed that the group treated with probiotic combined with Ivermectin had the best
results in all parameters (parasitological, histopathological and molecular) followed by the
group which was treated with Ivermectin and finally the probiotic treated group. The combined
group showed the lowest T.spiralis count both adult (percentage reduction 67.4%) and larvae
(percentage reduction 88.1%) , also showed the best improvement of the histopathological
results in the form of increased reduction in the number of deposited larvae and the intensity
of the inflammatory infiltrate as well as destruction of the surrounding capsule . And in
correspond to the gene expression; the combined treated group had the best effect on reduction
of myogenin gene expression with percentage reductions (80%).