Prevalence of echinococcosis and Taenia hydatigena cysticercosis in slaughtered small ruminants at the livestock-wildlife interface areas of Ngorongoro, Tanzania.

M B Miran,A A Kasuku,E S Swai

doi:10.14202/vetworld.2017.411-417

Abstract

Aim:Echinococcosis or hydatidosis (due to the larval stage of Echinococcus spp.) and cysticercosis (due to the larval stage of Taenia hydatigena) pose a significant economic losses due to slaughter condemnation and risk to public health in developing countries such as Tanzania where sanitation is poor and people live in close proximity with each other and with animals. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of and to identify the predisposing factors for echinococcosis and cysticercosis in sheep and goats at three slaughter slabs located in the livestock-wildlife interface areas of Ngorongoro, Tanzania.Materials and Methods:A cross-sectional based survey was conducted, from January 2013 to April 2013, whereby a total of 180 animals comprising 90 goats and 90 sheep of both sexes were examined at postmortem for the evidence of larval stages of Echinococcus spp. (hydatid cyst) and T. hydatigena (Cysticercus tenuicollis) through visual inspection, incision and palpation of organs and viscera.Results:The prevalence of echinococcosis was 22.2% and 16.6%, in goats and sheep, respectively, while the overall infection rates for cysticercosis were 61.1% in goats and 42.2% in sheep. The result of this study revealed that goats and sheep in Malambo slaughter slab had significantly higher prevalence of T. hydatigena (C. tenuicollis) and hydatid cysts (p<0.05) compared to other slab points. T. hydatigena (C. tenuicollis) cysts were more frequently detected in the omentum than other visceral organs among the animals examined.Conclusion:In conclusion, the observed high prevalence of the two metacestodes larval stages leads to high condemnation rates of edible offals and raises significant public health concerns. This underscores for the need to undertake more extensive epidemiological investigations to better determine the causal factors, economic impact, and public health importance of the disease in this livestock-wildlife interface setting.

Highlights

Goats and sheep represent the second and third largest proportion of the livestock population in Tanzania, respectively
Of 180 examined carcasses, 19.4% were infected by the larval form of E. granulosus (Table-2), 16.6% were found in sheep, and 22.2% in goats. 40% and 22.9%, respectively, of the cysts were located only in the lungs and liver (Table-3)
The high prevalence found in goats recorded in this study is in agreement to the findings by Dalimi et al [15] who reported a mean prevalence of 8.1% hydatidosis in sheep, 38.3% in goats in Iran and contrary to Oryan et al [8] observation of 45.5%, and 10.0% in sheep and goats, respectively in Fars, southern Iran

Summary

Introduction

Goats and sheep represent the second and third largest proportion of the livestock population in Tanzania, respectively. Tanzania’s small ruminant wealth in 2008 included 15.1 million goats and 5.7 million sheep [1]. More than 99% of this livestock are kept in low-input low-output systems, owned and managed by 1,732,863 low income mixed and pastoral households who operate under traditional husbandry system, often with little or no access to informed and relevant animal production advice or reliable veterinary services. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/ publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated

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