Abstract
Gastrointestinal helminths are major enteric parasites affecting the health of important livestock ruminants, such as cattle and goats. It is important to routinely survey these animals for helminth infections to allow effective management and control programs to be implemented. A cross-sectional helminth survey carried out in Kanchanaburi Province, Thailand, revealed the infection rate of gastrointestinal helminths in cattle (n = 157) and goats (n = 117) to be 35.7% and 88%, respectively, by microscopic fecal examination, and a 100% herd prevalence was observed in goats. Eggs of strongyle nematodes, Strongyloides spp., Trichuris spp., Capillaria spp., Paramphistomum spp., and Moniezia spp. were detected, with a relatively high rate of strongyle nematode infection in both cattle (28.7%) and goats (86.3%). Mixed infections were observed in 14.3% and 35.9% of egg-positive samples from cattle and goats, respectively. Risk factor analysis showed that dairy cattle were 5.1 times more likely to be infected with strongyles than meat cattle. In contrast, meat goats were 9.3 times more likely to be infected with strongyles than dairy goats. The inverse findings in cattle and goats are discussed. Female gender was associated with a higher risk of strongyle infection in goats. DNA sequencing and in-house semi-nested PCR with primers specific to a region in the internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) were successfully used to identify strongyle genera in randomly selected egg-positive cattle (n = 24) and goat (n = 24) samples. Four strongyle genera, i.e., Cooperia spp., Haemonchus spp., Oesophagostomum spp., and Trichostrongylus spp. were identified by DNA sequencing. By semi-nested PCR, Cooperia spp. were detected as a major parasite of cattle (70.8%), whereas Haemonchus spp. were abundant in goats (100%). The majority of samples from cattle (58.3%) and goats (95.8%) were found to coinfect with at least two strongyle genera, suggesting that coinfection with multiple strongyle genera was more common than single infection in these animals.
Highlights
Gastrointestinal helminths are one of the most important disease-causing agents in veterinary medicine, especially in livestock, and lead to economic losses as a result of a decrease in meat, milk, or wool production [1,2]
Fecal samples were collected from cattle farms and goat farms located in seven concentration techniques
We further focused on analyses of strongyle infection as the parasite was abundantly detected in cattle and goats
Summary
Gastrointestinal helminths are one of the most important disease-causing agents in veterinary medicine, especially in livestock, and lead to economic losses as a result of a decrease in meat, milk, or wool production [1,2]. Most gastrointestinal helminths infect animals via the ingestion of infective-stage larvae or eggs. Strongyle nematodes of the order Strongylida are an important group of gastrointestinal helminths that significantly affect the health of ruminants, especially in tropical areas [3,4,5]. In Thailand, a prevalence of strongyle infections (27%) was reported in beef cattle from Nan Province in 2005 [6]. Those cattle were raised in a native pasture grazing system with poor sanitation and a lack of deworming. A high strongyle infection rate (79.47%), with 100% herd prevalence, was found among goats in Nakhon Pathom Province, Thailand, in 2010 [7]. In Lao PDR, strongyles were detected in 36% of cattle and 93%
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