Prevalence and risk factors of bovine and ovine fasciolosis, and evaluation of direct sedimentation sensitivity method at Bahir-Dar Municipal Abattoir, Northern Ethiopia

Abstract

A cross-sectional study was conducted from November, 2010 to March, 2011 to estimate the prevalence of bovine and ovine fasciolosis, to assess risk factors and to estimate direct financial loss due to liver condemnation on cattle and sheep slaughtered at Bahir Dar municipal abattoir. Additionally, the sensitivity of direct sedimentation technique for the diagnosis of fasciolosis in cattle and sheep was also evaluated. Thus, of the total 768 collected fecal samples (384 cattle and 384 sheep), 121 cattle (31.5%) and 42 sheep (10.9%) were found positive. Likewise, detail postmortem examination of the livers revealed significant (X² = 72.17; p = 0.000) difference in the number of flukes recovered from cattle (45.3%) and sheep (16.9%). Analysis of the risk factors indicated the presence of significant occurrence of ovine fasciolosis among different age groups (p = 0.038, X² = 4.30) and between sexes (p = 0.710, X² = 0.14). Analysis of intensity of pathological lesion in bovine livers revealed 43 (24.7%) lightly, 71 (40.8%) moderately, and 60 (34.5%) severely affected livers. Fasciola hepatica was more prevalent (69.5 and 76.9%) than Fasciola gigantica (14.4 and 13.9%), mixed infection by both flukes (6.9 and 6.2%) and unidentified immature fluke (16.0 and 9.2%) in cattle and sheep, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of fecal examination were found to be 69.54% and 100% in cattle and 64.61% and 100% in sheep, respectively. The average financial loss per annum as a result of liver condemnation was estimated to be 198,457.80 and 3,745.76 Ethiopian Birr (11421.61 and 215.56 USD) in cattle and sheep, respectively, indicating that the disease is economically important. This study showed high prevalence of fasciolosis occurrence associated with high financial losses implying the need for control intervention.

Keywords: Fasciolosis, prevalence, sheep, cattle, abattoir, economic importance, Ethiopia