Prevalence of Gastrointestinal Parasites of Food Animals (Small Ruminants) in Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria

Abstract

Gastrointestinal parasites (GIP) are a serious threat to small ruminants’ production with significant socio-economic impact. The current study was undertaken to determine the diversity, prevalence and risk factors of GIP of sheep and goats in Maiduguri, Nigeria. Adopting convenient sampling technique, we collected exactly 250 faecal samples from sheep and goats across several study locations within Maiduguri during the months of July to August 2023. Additionally, individual animal data were recorded including host type, sex, species, breed, age and body condition score. All the collected samples were subjected to simple floatation techniques to ascertain the presence of gastrointestinal parasite eggs or ova. Data obtained were subjected to chi-square and multiple regression analysis using GraphPad Prism Version 5. Results shows that exactly 200 samples out of 250 were positive with an overall prevalence of 80.0%. Nematode ova and Eimeria oocyst identified were those of Strongyles (73.5%; 147/200), followed by Eimeria (41.5%; 83/200), Strongyloides (26%; 52/200) and Moniezia (1.5%; 3/200). The occurrence of gastrointestinal helminths was higher in the goats (81.9%) compared to the sheep (78.1%). Furthermore, the occurrence was higher in adults (81.4%) compared to young ones (77.7%) and in males (84.2%) than females (76.2%). No statistically significant difference (p>0.05) was observed in the prevalence between age, sex, breed and body condition score. Only location was documented to have a statistically significant association(p<0.05). In conclusion, this study has documented the occurrence of four species of GIP in sheep and goat. We therefore advocated the need for routine deworming of these small ruminant stocks to enhance their productivity.