Epidemiology of Fasciolosis in cattle in selected districts of bale zone, south eastern Ethiopia

Abstract

A cross-sectional study was conducted from December 2021 to September 2022 with the aim of determining the prevalence of bovine fasciolosis and assessing its associated risk factors in Dello Mena town municipal abattoir, Dello Mena district, south- Eastern Ethiopia. Postmortem examination was used as diagnostic tool for this research to detect any adult Liver fluke found 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 one or both of the fasciola species. Fasciola hepatica was the most prevalent species with the prevalence rate of 53.64% (103) followed by F. gigantic and mixed infections with the prevalence rate of 40.1% (77), and 6.25% (12) respectively. There was statistically significant difference (p0.05) 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, strictly different measures should be practiced in the study area to control the parasite and thereby it is possible to avoid its negative impacts in the animals.