Prevalence and Predictors of Gastrointestinal Parasitic infection among
Agro-Pastoral Cattle Herds in Ibarapa, Oyo State, southwestern Nigeria
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.