Prevalence of trematode infection in cattle and common flukecides used against flukes in Kilosa District, Tanzania

Abstract

Trematode infections in ruminants cause severe economic losses by causing acute and chronic disease in cattle. This study was conducted to investigate the occurrence of trematode infections in cattle and their snail intermediate hosts in Kilosa District. A total of 341 cattle were examined for the presence of trematode infections using the Flukefinder^® method. Snail intermediate hosts were collected from selected water bodies using scooping method. Structured questionnaire was used to establish the anthelmintics used for treatment of trematode infections in the study area. The overall prevalence of Fasciola gigantica and amphistomes were 8.5%, and 49.3% respectively. The differences in level of infections between sex groups were not statistically significant (p > 0.05) for both Fasciola and amphistomes. However, the differences in the level of infections between body score condition were statistically significant for Fasciola (p < 0.05) and for age group the level of infections were statistically significant for amphistomes (p < 0.05). The identified snail intermediate hosts included Lymnaea natalensis and Bulinus species. The snail population density was low in December and April and started to increase in June after the rainy season. Furthermore, the study has shown that Albendazole, combination of Levamisole and Oxyclozanide (Nilzan plus^®) and Nitroxynil (Trodax^®) were the main anthelmintics used for treatment and control of trematode infections in cattle in the District. The present study has clearly shown that trematode infections were present in cattle in Kilosa District making it necessary for further longitudinal studies on seasonal variation of snail intermediate hosts population, infection rates and disease pattern in cattle so that an effective control programme can be established.

Keywords: anthelmintics, snail, trematode, cattle, Kilosa district