Abstract
Parasitic agents in laboratory animals, are detrimental to the success of researches and can also infect personnel and researchers. This study is aimed at investigating the parasitic infections of laboratory animals maintained in animal houses of The National Veterinary Research Institute, Vom, Nigeria, as well asdetermining the zoonotic implications of these parasites. Two hundred and six laboratory animals (72 rabbits, 55 guinea pigs, 50 mice and 29 rats) were randomly sampled. Faecal samples and skin scrapings were collected and subjected to parasitological analyses. Pathological examinations were conducted on laboratory animals that had skin lesions. Sixteen different species comprising of 7 nematodes, 5 cestodes, 3 protozoans, and 1 mite were detected. Eimeria species (40/206; 19.42%; 95% CI = 14.44-25.25) was the most prevalent parasite, followed by Syphacia muris (26/206; 12.62%; 95% CI = 8.59-17.69). Entamoeba caviae, Tritrichomonas caviae, Rodentolepis microstoma, Rodentolepis nana, Heterakis spumosa, Capillaria hepatica and Cysticercus fasciolaris were the least prevalent with a 0.49% prevalence each. Three, four, five and six different species of parasites were detected in mice, guinea pigs, rats and rabbits respectively. The Chi-Square analysis revealed that the infection rate of parasites was significantly higher (p = < 0.01) in mice compared to rats, rabbits and guinea pigs. Of the Sixteen species of parasites detected, Eimeria species, Syphacia muris, Rodentolepis diminuta, Rodentolepis microstoma, Rodentolepis nana, and Capillaria hepatica are zoonotic. This study showed that 40.29% of the studied laboratory animals were infected with one parasite species or the other. The outcome of this study stresses the zoonotic implications of the parasites detected. We thereby advise researchers and handlers to take caution and apply utmost sanitary measures in the handling of laboratory animals so as to prevent themselves from being infected with these zoonotic parasites.
Highlights
Laboratory animals are animals used for biological studies in most academic and research institutions of the world
This study showed that 40.29% of the studied laboratory animals were infected with one parasite species or the other
Eimeria species (40/206; 19.42%; 95% CI = 14.44–25.25) was the most prevalent parasite species followed by Syphacia muris (26/206; 12.62%; 95% CI = 8.59–17.69)
Summary
Laboratory animals are animals used for biological studies in most academic and research institutions of the world. Laboratory animals have contributed significantly to the knowledge of biological structures and functions and are important tools in biological and medical researches, and training (Gudissa et al 2011; Bassad et al 2016) They are used for the diagnosis and studies of infective organisms, in the production of vaccines, sera and other biological substances of public health and veterinary importance, they are used extensively in the safety evaluation of diverse therapeutic drugs, in comprehensive varieties of biological investigations and foods chemicals (Clark et al 1997; Bassad et al 2016). Infection and infestations with these organisms lead to loss of time, money, loss of quality in the affected laboratory animals and research effort (Griffiths 1971; Ademola and Ola-Fadunsin 2012; Bassad et al 2016; Dolatkhah et al 2017)
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