अमूर्त

Prevalence of bovine fasciolosis in dello mena woreda, bale zone, south eastern Ethiopia.

Kulunde Nota, Feyera Gemeda Dima*

Across-sectional study was conducted from May 2020 to December 2020 to estimate the prevalence of bovine fasciolosis and assess its associated risk factors in Dello Mena town municipal abattoir, Dello Mena district, south- Eastern Ethiopia. Postmortem examination was done to detect adult liver fluke in bile ducts of the slaughtered cattle. A total of 400 randomly selected indigenous and cross breed cattle slaughtered during the study period were examined and 192 of them were found to be positive for the fasciola species. Fasciola hepatica was the most prevalent species with the prevalence rate of 53.64% (103) followed by Fasciola gigantic and mixed infections with the prevalence rate of 40.1% (77), and 6.25% (12) respectively. There was statistically significant difference (P<0.05) among the different species of fasciola in the positive animals. In the study, risk factors such as age, body condition and sex of the study animals were considered. There were no statistically significant differences (P>0.05) in the prevalence of the parasite among those associated risk factors. Finally, in the present study higher prevalence of bovine fasciolosis was obtained when compared with the prevalence reported by different researchers at different areas of the country. Therefore, strict control of the growth and sale of watercress and other edible water plants, should be practiced in the study area, (vegetable and viscerals) should be thoroughly cooked to avoid zoonotic risks, and destroying of the intermediate host snail population, and prevention of livestock access to snail-infested pasture to avoid its economic impacts.