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

Vet World Vol.10 April-2017 Article-8

Research Article

Veterinary World, 10(4): 411-417

https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2017.411-417

M. B. Miran¹, A. A. Kasuku², and E. S. Swai³

1. Department of Livestock, Ngorongoro District Council, P. O. Box 1, Loliondo, Tanzania.
2. Department of Microbiology and Parasitology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Sokoine University of Agriculture, P.O. Box 3015, Morogoro, Tanzania.
3. Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, P. O. Box 9152, Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania.

Background and 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. Keywords: cysticercosis, echinococcosis, small ruminants, Tanzania, wildlife interface.

Keywords: cysticercosis, echinococcosis, small ruminants, Tanzania, wildlife interface.

How to cite this article: Miran MB, Kasuku AA, Swai ES (2017) Prevalence of echinococcosis and

Received: 25-10-2016 Accepted: 27-02-2017 Published online: 19-04-2017

Corresponding author: E. S. Swai E-mail: esswai@gmail.com

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2017.411-417

Copyright: Miran, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. 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.