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Ethiopia lies within the tropical latitudes of Africa and has an extremely diverse topography, wide range of climatic features and multitude of agro-ecological zones, which make the country suitable for different agricultural production systems. This in turn has contributed to the existence of a large diversity of farm-animal genetic resources in the country. The current livestock production of Ethiopia is estimated as 53.99 million heads of cattle, 25.49 million sheep, 24.06 million goats, 1.91 million horses, 6.75 million donkeys, 0.35 million mules, 50.38 million of poultry, 0.92 Million of camels and 5.21 million of bee hives [1]. Sheep and goats are among the major economically important livestock in Ethiopia. Ethiopian livestock production systems are broadly characterized as low input, mixed crop livestock, agro-pastoral and pastoral systems; as well as medium input, peri-urban and urban enterprises. These livestock are almost entirely managed by the poor small-holder farmers and pastoralists [2].

Livestock production in Ethiopia’s agricultural economy is an important sector providing a significant contribution to gross domestic and export products, and raw materials for industries [3]. Small ruminants are important source of income for agricultural community and are one of Ethiopia’s major sources of foreign currency through exportation of live animals, meat and skin [4]. The contribution from this huge livestock resource to the national income is small due to several factors. The major constraints of small ruminant production in Ethiopia are diseases of various etiological origins, feed shortage and poor management [5].

Parasitic diseases are a global problem and considered as a major constraints in the health and productive performance of livestock [6]. They cause lowered productivity and high economic losses affecting the income of small holder shoat farming [7]. These diseases have a major impact on morbidity and mortality rates, with annual losses as high as 30–50% of the total value of livestock products of Ethiopia [8].

Nematode parasites of small ruminants result in low productivity due to stunted growth, poor weight gain and poor feeding and water intake [9]. The principal abomasal worms of small ruminants are Haemochus contortus, Ostertagia circumcincta, Ostertagia trifuricata, and Trichostronglus axei. Homonchus contortus is one of the most common abomasal worms of small ruminants which are known as “red stomach worm” or “wire worm”. It is the most prevalent and pathogenic parasite and also economically important of small ruminants [10].

Haemonchus contortus is a species most commonly found in sheep and goats but, Haemonchus placei is the usual species in cattle and there may be cross infection occur when small ruminants and cattle graze together but its severity is usually less [11]. The parasite found in abomasum of sheep and goat causes blood loss resulting in decrease in erythrocytes, lymphocytes, hemoglobin, packed cell volume, body weight, and wool growth. The abomasal nematode, which is particularly important and causes severe anemia and death in severely infected animals, identified haemonchosis as one of the top ten constrains to sheep and goat rearing in East Africa [12]. The first and second stages of larvae are free-living organism and the host ingests the third stage larvae in which starting the infection. Adults of the parasite are found on the surface of the mucosa (the lining of the stomach). Both the larvae (L4) and the adults of Haemonchus species suck blood. A thousand Haemonchus species of adult can suck certain litire of blood, one adult parasite suck 0.05 ml of blood/day causing severe anemia. A heavy infestation (20,000–30,000 worms) can kill sheep very quickly. All ages of sheep are susceptible to parasite infection but lambs are more susceptible than adults [13].

The cardinal sign of haemonchosis is pallor of the skin and mucous membranes. A hematocrit reading of less than 15% is always accompanied by extreme weakness and shortness of breath and warrants a grave prognosis; less of plasma protein results in anasarca frequently manifested externally as a submaxillary edema (bottle jaw). The appetite typically remains good and, in acute outbreaks, affected animals may not lose appreciable weight. Lambs are the most seriously affected members of the flock, but older sheep under stress also may have fatal anemia [14].

The reports of H. contortus infection in sheep and goats at the different localities in the Ethiopia indicated that the parasite could represent a major problem to sheep and goats industry in the country [15]. Eventhough many research was occurred in different part of Ethiopia on haemonchosis nothing have done in Kersa district. Therefore, the objective of this paper is:

• To estimate the prevalence of in sheep and goats in Kersa district, East Hararghe zone, Eastern Ethiopia.
• To investigate the potential risk factors associated with infection in the study area.
• To evaluate the status of in study population.
• To forward the control measures and prevention method.

Study area

The study was conducted from November 2018 until April 2019 at the abattoir of three towns in Kersa district namely Kersa, Watar and Langey municipal abattoirs. Kersa district is one of the 24 districts found in East Harargeh zone. The district constitutes 35 rural peasant associations and 3 urban centers. It located at 475 km from Addis to East direction and at a distance of 42 km from Harar town to the west direction along Addis Ababa (Finfine)-Harar main road and other study takes place in a towns located within the district Watar and Langey town. In Geographic term Kersa district is located between 9°17` to 9°29` N Latitude and 41°49’ E to 41°56` E Longitude. The altitude of the district extends from 1400 to 3200 m.a.s.l. and the district classified into 3 major agro climatic zones called Dega (temperate rainy climate) Woina Dega (tropical rainy climate) and Kola (tropical climate) climatic zones [16]. Kersa district known by livestock production in Eastern Hararghe zone with an estimated population of 198308 cattle, 63642 goat, 43764 sheep, 75 mule, 328 horse, 29345 donkey, l 451 camel, 80245 poultry and 6377 traditional hive, 158 transional hive and 191 modern hive of honey bee are keeping with in the district (Table 1) [17].

Figure 1: Map of the Kersa district, showing district’s peasants association and their capital towns.

Study population

The study animals were 385 small ruminants (179 sheep and 206 goats) in which 120, 105 and 160 animals are slaughtered in Kersa, Langey and Watar town municipal abattoir respectively, with in Kersa district. From 385 slaughtered animals in three slaughter houses, 185 are female while 200 are male. The study animals were small ruminants of local breed with different age and body condition, those were came from different Peasant Associations (PAs) of Kersa district that surrounding Kersa, Langey and watar town in addition to those three town. In this study, the origins of the animals were recorded from the merchants (owner of hotels) that provide animals for the abattoir whether they bought from another town with in the district or in study town where the data are collecting.

Study design

A cross sectional study was conducted to estimate the prevalence of sheep and goats haemonchosis and the potential risk factors associated with the disease. Study was carried out from November 2018 to April 2019 in Kersa district at abattoirs of three towns with in the district on a 3 purposively selected days (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) per week. Which done at two weekly interval on each 3 abattior; three day per week in one abattoir and next three day per week in another abattoir and continued routinely.

Sample size determination

To maximize the number of animals and to evaluate the system at the prevalence level the sample size was determined by using the formula given by Thrusfield [18].

N=(1.96² × P_exp (1-P_exp))/d²

Where,

n=Sample size required for this study,

d=Absolute desired precision,

p=Expected prevalence in the study area.

As an input, sample size was determined based on the previous prevalence done on Eastern Hararghe zone at Haramaya Municpal Abattior by Argaw, et al. averagely for both sheep and goats (86%) was taken as overall expected prevalence [19]. For calculation, a 95% level of confidence interval and a 5% were used as absolute desired precision. Based on the above formula the minimum desired sample size was 185 and so as to increase the accuracy of the study, the study animal increased to 385.

Study methodology

Ante mortem examination: Ante mortem examination was performed a few hours before slaughtering and the animal (sheep and goats) was selected by using systematic random sampling and tagged with temporal tag. The body condition of small ruminants were determined before the animals were slaughtered based on ribs observation and palpation while, the age of the sheep and goat was characterized using teeth eruption [20]. Conventionally, those animals with the age of less than one year were considered as young while those greater than one year were included as adults according to the classification of age groups [21].

Post mortem examination: During postmortem examination, the abomasums was ligated at both ends to avoid leakage and separated from omasum and duodenum. Then the abomasums was opened along its greater curvature and close visualization was made for the presence of adult Haemonchus parasite. The abomasums wall was carefully observed for any gross changes including its contents and the adult H. contortus worms were identified visually based on its location in abomasum and morphological appearances according to Urquhart, et al. [10], Grossly the adults are easily identified because of their specific location in the abomasum and their large size (2.0-3.0 cm). In fresh specimens, the white ovaries winding spirally around the blood filled intestine produce a 'barber's pole' appearance’.

Data analysis

The collected data was entered in to Microsoft excel work sheet 2007. The data were thoroughly screened for errors and properly coded before subjecting to statistical analysis. The data were imported from Microsoft excel and analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 20. Descriptive statistics was conducted to quantify the prevalence of haemonchosis in relation to different explanatory variables. The prevalence of the haemonchosis was calculated by dividing the number of sheep and goats harboring the parasite by the number of sheep and goats examined. Pearson’s Chi-square (χ2) to measure association between prevalence of the haemonchosis with the species, age, origin and body condition. The p value less than 0.05 (p<0.05) was statistically considered significant.

In this study a total of 385 sheep and goats were examined using postmortem examination for the presence or absence of H. contortus. The overall prevalence of haemonchosis in small ruminants was 76.4% (294/385) in the study area. In addition, among sheep examined, the infection rate was 81% (145/179) whereas, in goats the infection rate was 72.3% (149/206) as showed on Table 1. There was statistically significant association (χ2=14.475, p<0.0001) between the occurrence of haemonchosis and species of small ruminants.

Table 1: Overall prevalence of haemonchosis relation to risk factors.

Regarding distribution of haemonchosis by sex, higher prevalence of haemonchosis was observed in female 84.9% (157/185) as compared to male 137/200 (68.5%) which reveals there is a significant association (χ2=14.475, p<0.001) between the occurrence of haemonchosis and the sex of small ruminants (Table 1). This study also revealed, higher prevalence of haemonchosis infection in young animals 101/114 (88.6%) as compared to adult 194/271 (71.2%). The Chi-square test showed there is significantly association between occurrence of haemonchosis (Table 1) and age of animals (p<0.0001).

For the body condition the prevalence of heamoncosis was 66.2%in good body condition, 78.1% in moderate body condition, and 96.6% in poor body condition, which showed statistically significant association (p<0.0001) with the occurrence of haemonchosis and body condition of the animals (Table 1). Based on origin the highest rate of infection was in Langey (79%), and followed by Kersa (75.8%), whereas the lowest rate of infection was in Watar (75%). However; there was no statistically significant difference among origin of animals or slaughter house (χ2=0.640, p>0.05) and occurrence of haemonchosis.

Haemonchosisis is one of a considerably significance parasite in a wide range of agro-climatic zones in sub Saharan Africa and constitute one of the most important constraints to small ruminant production. In this study, the overall prevalence of H. contortus was 76.4%. This result was in line with the finding of Fentahun and Luke [22] who reported 80.2% in Gonder town; Shankute, et al. [23] who reported prevalence in the study of an abattoir survey on gastrointestinal nematodes in sheep and goats in Hemex Export Abattoir as 77.38%; Mushonga, et al. [24] who reported 75.7% on the study conducted on the prevalence of haemonchosis of sheep and goats from Nyagatare district, Rwanda; Githigia, et al. [25] who reported 77% in Kenya and Wang, et al. [26] who reported 78% in Heilongjiang province China.

The present finding (76.4%) is lower than the results of previous studies in sheep and goats from different parts of eastern Ethiopia occurred at different slaughter house. Wossene and Gelaye [27] 96.5% in sheep and 100% in goats in the arid and semi-arid zone of eastern Ethiopia; Kumsa and Abebe [28] 91.2% in sheep and 82.9% in goats of Ogaden region slaughtered at Debre-zeit ELFORA export abattoir; Argaw, et al. [18] 90.1% in sheep and 81.8% in goats in the prevalence of abomasal nematodes in sheep and goats slaughtered at Haramaya municipal abattoir. The higher prevalence of haemonchosis may be due to variations in climatic feature such as rainfall, humidity and temperature of each country, region and districts, sample size, host factor, availability of veterinary infrastructure, level of education and economic capacity of the community, the standard of management such as pasture grazing patterns of animal, topographical location of pastures and animals are managed under extensive grazing in which large number of small ruminants are kept together. This can increase the degree of pasture contamination leading to higher prevalence.

However; the present prevalence of haemonchosis (76.4%) both in sheep and goat in our study is higher than the prevalence reported by Mulugeta, et al. [29] who reported 69.5% and 65% in sheep and goats respectively in and around Bedelle; Nigussie [30] who reported 61.63% and 54.76% in sheep and goats respectively in and around Wolaita Soddo; Abdo, et al. [15] who report 69.6% and 57.1% in sheep and goat respectively in Debra Zeit ELFORA export abattior, Bishoftu; Moges, et al. [31] who reported 56.25% of prevalence in sheep from Bahir Dar Municipal Abattoir; Tibeso and Mekonnen [32] who reported 63.8% of prevalence from Arsi Negelle Municipal Abattoir; Sabbas, et al. [33] who reported a prevalence of 55.56% from Benin; Osman, et al. [34] who report a prevalence of 14.6% and 13.77% were in. sheep and goats respectively from New Valley Governorate, Egypt. These variations in prevalence of haemonchosis in small ruminants from different parts of Ethiopia and different country may be due to the difference factors such as environmental factors that could suppress the survival and development of infective larval stage of most H. contortus, sample size, host factor, presence and absence of veterinary services, standard of management and habits of anthelmintic usage which influences the development, distribution and survival of the parasite, different management practices such as regular deworming, intensification housing and feeding management practice but Chaudhary, et al. [35], attributed that for local geo climatic factors , nutrition, natural resistance of the host, treatment schemes and season are major risk factor for the variation in level and occurrence of disease.

The percentage prevalence of H. contortus in terms of species in sheep and goats was recorded as 81% and 72.3% respectively. There was significant difference (P<0.05) in the prevalence of haemonchosis between sheep and goats, indicating that sheeps are more susceptible to the infection than goats. The results of the present study are supported by Abdo, et al. [15] who reported 69.6% and 57.1% in sheep and goats respectively in Debre Zeit ELFORA export; Mulugeta, et al. [29] who reported 69.5% and 65% in sheep and goats in and around Bedelle; Nigussie [30] who reported 61.63% and 54.76% in sheep and goats; Fentahun and Luke [22] who reported 81.2% and 73.5% in sheep and goats respectively in Gonder town. In contrary to the current finding; Mengist, et al. [36] reported that the rate of the parasite was higher in goat compared to sheep with the prevalence of 71.3% and 67.57% respectively, the parasite was higher in goat compared to sheep.

The higher prevalence of haemonchosis in sheep than goats might be attributed to a variety of factors like ground grazing habit of sheep and usually graze very close to the soil which might be helpful in the acquisition of more infective larvae (L3) of H. contortus from the contaminated herbage. Such differential prevalence in sheep and goat also might be due to the fact that goats browse on shrubs and small trees where translation of infective larvae to such height seems impossible [15].

The sex-wise percentage was found to be higher in the female (84.9%) in comparison to the male (68.5%). There was significant difference (P<0.05) between sexes. Higher rate of H. contortus infection in the female host as compared to the male this is coincide with the results of different researcher from different country and different part of Ethiopia; in Ethiopia [31] as 46% and 67.4% in male and female respectively and disagreement with a study by [22] as 80.9% and 77.1% in males and females respectively in Ethiopia; in Nigeria [37] who report 77.8% and 50% in male and female respectively and in Sudan [38] as 37.7% and 31.6% in male and female respectively. In the present study, higher prevalence of infection occurred in the females compared to males might be due to lowered resistance of female animals on the part of their reproductive events and insufficient/unbalanced diet against higher need and female animals are more susceptible than male animal due to cyclic hormonal variation [10].

The present study revealed that there was significant difference (P<0.05) among age groups with prevalence of 88.6% and 71.1%, in young and adults respectively. The current finding on the prevalence of haemonchosis between the two age groups was in line with previous study conducted by Moges, et al. [31] who report 65.1% and 47.1%, in young and adults respectively Abdo, et al. [15] who report 66.9% and 59.0% in young and adults respectively in Debre Ziet Elfora export abattoir, Bishoftu town. Our results do not coincide with the study conducted in Sudan [37] who report 21.1% and 42.9% in young and adult respectively. The reasons of these results may be back to less infection frequent in which lead to less susceptibility of immune system to new infection, or the old animal become more resistance for infection [39]. The other factor was young animals are more susceptible to parasitic diseases than adults and it is believed that lower resistance to disease in young ruminants is partly due to immunological hypo responsiveness to infection [40].

Relationship between body condition and haemonchosis in sheep and goats were recorded with statistical difference (P<0.05) in prevalence of H. contortus among different body condition scores (poor, moderate and good body conditioned animals). The highest prevalence was seen in poor body conditioned animals (96.6%) then followed by moderate body conditioned animal (78.1%) and the lowest was observed in good body conditioned animal (66.2%). These variation is due to animals in poor body condition have a little tolerance and lack immunity; therefore, more susceptible to infection. The present study was agree with Moges, et al. [31] who report 64.6%, 46.34% and 39.13% in poor, moderate and good body conditioned animal respectively in Bahir Dar city municipal abattoir; Ahmed, et al. [37] who reported 96.6%, 65.9%, 8.3% in poor, medium and good body conditioned animal respectively, from Khordufan State, Sudan and disagreed with the results reported by Ragassa, et al. [41] who report prevalence of haemonchosis was found to be higher in good body conditioned than medium body conditioned animals in Southern Ethiopia.

The overall prevalence of haemonchosis was 76.4%. The prevalence of haemochosis was higher in small ruminants 81% and 72.2% in sheep and goats respectively. The higher infection was recorded in sheep. The higher prevalence was also recorded in female, young and poor body conditioned animals. The prevalence of haemonchosis in this study is statistically associated (P<0.05) with species, sex, age and, body condition. However, origins was not statistically significance (P>0.05) with prevalence of haemonchosis. The present study concluded that haemonchosis is a prevalent parasitic disease in small ruminants in Kersa district.

Therefore based on the above conclusion the following recommendations are forwarded:

• Animals should be kept in high plane of nutrition (management) especially animal in poor body condition and young’s in order to develop resistance against haemonchosis.
• Strategic deworming of the parasite should be forwarded with interval of 2-4 weeks.
• A public awareness should be created by Veterinarians, extension workers and the government about the animal disease specially GIT nematode including and their effect on the small ruminants and its effect on economic growth of shoat.

All authors are equally participated, read and approved the final version of the manuscript.

Nil.

The protocol of my current research whose approved by college of veterinary medicine and animal sciences of University of Gondar, Ethiopia and the ethical clearance who waived due to no major involvement of humans and animal subject welfare of ethical issues.

Nil.

The author declares that they have no competing interests.

Nil.

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this manuscript paper.

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