The point prevalence of gastro-intestinal parasites in calves, sheep and goats in Magadi division, south-western Keny

Abstract

Helminths cause great economic loss in livestock in Africa, and can be categorized as either direct or indirect losses. Arid and semi-arid lands (ASAL) in Kenya comprise 71 % of total land area and harbour the largest population of cattle, sheep and goats. However, little information on the distribution and impact of gastro-intestinal (GIT) parasitism in these animals is available. This survey was conducted to establish the prevalence of GIT parasites infecting calves, sheep and goats and their relative importance in Magadi division, which is semi-arid. Faecal samples were obtained directly from the rectum of 109 calves, 133 goats and 20 sheep and submitted to the laboratory for faecal worm egg counts, and coccidial oocysts examination using a modified McMaster method. The significance of differences in mean egg count per gram (epg) between animal species and herds (farms) were assessed using analysis of variance. The overall prevalence of nematodes in the calves, sheep and goats was 69.2 %, 80 % and 82 %, respectively. About 10 % of sheep and goats had epgs higher than 1 000, the remainder having light to moderate infections. The overall prevalence of coccidial oocysts in calves, sheep and goats was 30 %, 44 % and 45 %, respectively. Poor productivity in ASAL areas, where nutrition is often poor, is likely to be pronounced in the presence of parasite infections. These findings indicate that viable internal parasite control should be implemented in the study area in order to increase the productivity of the livestock there.

Point Prevalence and Intensity of Gastrointestinal Parasite Ova/Oocyst and Its Association with Body Condition Score (BCS) of Sheep and Goats in Maiduguri, Nigeria

“…Our finding also concurs with Ovutor et al (2012) who reported an overall prevalence of 73.2% and 81.6% for helminths in exotic and indigenous goats examined in Southern part of Nigeria. Our result also agrees with Maichomo et al (2004) who reported a prevalence of 80% and 82% in sheep and goats respectively in Kenya. However, the results disagree with Biu et al (2009) who reported a lower prevalence of 54% and 58% in sheep and goats examined in Maiduguri.…”

“…Strongyle, Coccidia and mixed infections with Strongyle and Coccidia were common in both sheep and goats while Trematodes and Cestodes ova was found only in sheep, however, Strongyle ova was the most prevalent. This finding is consonant with previous reports by Maichomo et al (2004), Biu et al (2009), Shimelis et al (2011) and Kantzoura et al (2012). Trematodes and Cestodes infections had the lowest frequencies in sheep and were not encountered in goats in this study.…”

Infection levels of gastrointestinal parasites in sheep and goats in Papua New Guinea

“…Similar infection rates for both sheep and goats have been reported in other developing countries, such as Ethiopia and Kenya (Maichomo et al, 2004;Regassa et al, 2006). This high parasite prevalence may be attributed to poor farm management, e.g.…”

Role of physiological status of ruminant animals reared in Lafia metropolis on gastrointestinal parasites burden

“…Meanwhile, both sexes were infected with Haemonchus, Fasciola and Strongyle, therefore, the observation could be a mere coincidence and probably not due to sex of the cattle. It was shown that 35.3% of the sheep examined was infected with gastrointestinal parasites and the value was less than 80.0% recorded by Maichomo et al (2004) and 70.0% reported by Ntonifor et al (2013). The differences may be adduced to the population size of the animals and probably due to the laboratory protocols adopted in the studies.…”