Prevalence and economic importance of parasitic lesions in small ruminant in Saaba slaughter area, Burkina Faso

Abstract

A cross-sectional study was conducted in the dry season from February to May 2016 to determine the prevalence of parasitic lesions and associated economic losses in small ruminants slaughtered in the slaughter area of Saaba, a rural community in the suburban area of Ouagadougou. To this end, an ante-mortem inspection (breed, age and sex) followed by a post-mortem inspection of the slaughtered small ruminants and a questionnaire survey of butchers on the selling prices of the seizures made were conducted and analyzed. The results of the post-mortem inspection indicated a total of 10,659 small ruminants inspected of which 4,598 sheep and 6,061 goats. The overall prevalence of parasitic lesions was 2.1%, of which 1.2% in sheep and 0.9% in goats. The injured organs of female small ruminants were significantly (p < 0.0001) more infested than those of males in all species of small ruminants. The organs affected and seized were intestines (74.3%), livers (12.8%), lungs (12.4%) and spleen (0.5%). The reasons for seizure were mainly abscesses, oesophagostomosis and parasitic nodules with a significant predominance of oesophagostomosis (p = 0.0098). The partial seizure of these organs by the inspecting officer was significantly more pronounced in goats than in sheep (p = 0.0006). The economic loss induced to butchers (in CFA francs, local currency) was estimated at 93,688.6 CFA francs, of which 78.1% was in sheep compared to 21.9% in goats. This study highlighted the importance of the economic losses caused by parasitic lesions in small ruminants during the dry season. Urgent measures should be envisaged to reduce the extent of these post-veterinary inspection losses in order to better combat malnutrition of the population and limit the spread of digestive parasitism in the country.