Abstract
Gastrointestinal parasites (GIP) are a major setback to profitable cattle production in developing countries like Nigeria. However, despite the huge population of pastoralists and their cattle in Ibarapa Area, Nigeria, there is limited information on the prevalence of GIP among the resident cattle. This study was therefore carried out to determine the prevalence, distribution and factors associated with GIP among agro-pastoral cattle herds. Here, we carried out a cross-sectional study to screen different cattle herds for GIP between May and August 2019 in the Ibarapa Area of Oyo State, southwestern Nigeria. Faecal samples were obtained from randomly selected cattle and examined for GIP ova and oocysts using salt/ sugar centrifugal floatation technique at a specific gravity of 1.3. Factors such as breed, sex, age, body condition score (BCS) and herd size were obtained. Descriptive statistics and odds ratios (OR) were calculated. Chi-square test was used to determine the level of significance at a 95% confidence interval (95% CI). Predictors of GIP presence were determined using logistic regression. A total of 377 cattle comprising of 347 females from 39 different cattle herds, with age range 1 year to 15 years were screened. An overall prevalence of 58.1% (219) was obtained for cattle having at least one GIP. Eimeria spp had the highest prevalence (41.1%) followed by Neoascaris spp (10.1%), Strongyles spp (8.0%), Taenid spp (7.7%), Paraphistomum spp (6.1%), Monienza spp (2.9%), Nematodirus spp (2.9%), Schistosoma spp (2.7%) and Strongyloides spp (2.1%). Predictors of GIP infection were age (OR=0.5; CI: 0.3 – 0.8), BCS (OR=2.3; CI: 1.5 – 3.7), breed (OR = 0.5; CI: 0.3 – 0.7) and herd size (OR=0.6; CI: 0.4 – 0.8). High prevalence of GIP among agro-pastoralist cattle herds’ calls for improved animal health care delivery and assess to veterinary services among this population.
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