Gastrointestinal helminth infections in small-scale dairy cattle farms of Jimma town, Ethiopia

Abstract

A crossectional survey was carried out from November 2008 to April 2009 to determine and describe the prevalence and intensity of gastrointestinal parasite infections in small holder dairy cattle farms of Jimma town, Ethiopia. A total of 210 faecal samples were examined by modified Mc-Master slide and 163 (77.6%) of them were found to contain at least one gasterointestinal helminth parasite egg. The most prevalent gastrointestinal helminth parasite eggs detected were Paramphistomum (48.6%), Strongylidae (32.4%), Fasciola (23.3%), Moniezia (5.2%), Strongyloid (3.3%), Toxocara vitulorum (2.4%), Trichuris (1.9%), Capillaria (1.4%) and Nematodirus (0.9%) in decreasing order. The overall infection rates for nematode, cestode, trematode and mixed infections were 42.3%, 5.2 %, 71.9% and 19.7, respectively. The overall prevalence of gasterointestinal helminth infection was high in October (81.3%) and low in February (52.4%). A significant variation was observed in the prevalence of Toxocara vitulorum between young (7.01%) and adult animals (0.6%). The mean egg count was generally moderate (319.4 ± 62.3 per g of faeces). Intensity of strongyle infection in terms of epg showed no variations when different ages, body conditions, breeds and lactation conditions are compared. However, a higher epg count was observed between female and male animals. The genera of strongyles identified were Haemonchus, Trichostrongylus, Strongyloides, Oesophagostomum, Bunostomum and Cooperia. In conclusion, gasterointestinal helminth parasites are problems in small holder dairy farms in Jimma town. Future studies are required to evaluate the economic impact of helminth parasites and to formulate appropriate deworming practices that can be applied in order to alleviate the problem of worm burden in the study area.