A cross sectional study was conducted from November, 2010 to April, 2011 to determine the prevalence of bovine fasiciolosis in Holeta Municipal abattoir. The animals were chosen by a systematic random sampling method among slaughtered cattle. Of the 600 cattle examined in Holeta Municipal abattoir 122 (20.34%) were harboring the parasite of Fasciola. Both species of fasciola were identified during the study period at which F.hepatica was the most prevalent (15.17%) species followed by (3.17%), 1.17% mixed infection by both species and 0.83% immature or unidentified fluke were appreciated at the time. Most cattle were brought from high lands of Ethiopia to the abattoir as intermediate snail of F.hepatica and the parasite species itself survives above 1800m. Worm count was conducted on 122 infected livers revealed a mean fluke count of 70.25 per liver with maximum and minimum fluke count of 152 and 2, respectively. Intensity of liver infection showed that most of the affected livers were lightly infected (38.53%) and severely 29.5% while moderately infected livers had a relative frequency of 32%. Association between Fasciola and body condition was significant (P<0.05). However, age, breed and sex were not associated with the parasite Fasciola.

•    Cattle
•    Fasciola
•    Holeta
•    Municipal abattoir

Hailu S, Abdeta A (2020) Prevalence of Bovine Fasciolosis in Holeta Municipal Abattoir, Central Ethiopia. J Vet Med Res 7(5): 1198.

In Ethiopia, Current estimates show that there are 41.5 million heads of cattle, 41 million goats and sheep 1.1 million heads of dromedary, 5.8 millions of equines and 52 million chickens [1]. However this huge livestock resource is not fully utilized because of various constraints of which poor animal production and management and livestock disease are the most important. Loss due to parasitic disease is of great interest to many tropical countries [2].

Fasciolosis is an important parasitic disease of domestic ruminants caused by two liver fluke species, Faciola hepatica and F. gigntica. Fasciola hepatica has cosmopolitan distribution mainly in temperate zones, while is found in tropical regions of Africa and Asia. Thus, the two-fasciolid species overlap in many African and Asian countries and sometimes in the same country, although in such cases the ecological requirement of the flukes and their snail intermediate host are distinct [3,4].

The occurrence of fasciolosis in an area is influenced by a multiple factors which comprise host, parasite and environment effects. In the natural foci of fasciolosis, Fasciola and their intermediate and final hosts form an association posing potential epidemiological threats [5].

Bovine fasciolosis is one of the most important parasitic disease of cattle causing mortality and production losses in various parts of Ethiopia [6].

The disease is responsible for considerable economic losses in the cattle industry mainly through mortality, liver condemnation, reduced production of meat, milk, wool and expenditures for anthelmetics [7,8].

In tropical countries, fasciolosis is considered the single most important helminth infection of cattle, with reported prevalence of 30-90 % [9].

The prevalence of fasciolosis in many parts of Africa has been determined mainly at slaughter. However estimation of economic loss due to fasciolosis at national and regional levels is limited by lack of accurate estimation of the prevalence of disease [10].

The presence of fasciolosis due to F. hepatica and in Ethiopia has long been known and several workers [11-14] have reported its prevalence and economic significance. A review of available literature strongly suggest that fasciolosis exists in almost all parts of the country. It is regarded as one of the major setbacks to livestock productivity incurring huge direct and indirect losses in the country. Available published reports have indicated that bovine fasciolosis causes economic losses of roughly 350 million birr per annum due to decreased productivity alone [13].

More recently Tolasa et al. [4] and Abbuna et al. [15] have reported financial losses of 6300 USD and 4000 USD per annum, respectively due to liver condemnations at slaughter houses. And intermingling of cattle from various grazing areas occur [14].

Studies in other countries of Africa showed that F. gigntica was the predominant species encountered (Kithuka et al. [16] Phiri et al.[10]; Phiri et al.[17], whereas, in Europe, the Americans and Oceania only F. hepatica is concerned [3].

Therefore, this research work was carried out in Holeta Municipal abattoir with the objectives:

• To estimate the prevalence of bovine fasciolosis

• To identify the commonly involved fasciola species

• To assess fluke burden and relate it to the body condition of the animal and

• To identify potential risk factors for the occurrence of fascolosis.

Study area

The study was conducted at Holeta Municipal abattoir which is found in Holeta town. The study was carried out from November 2010 to April 2011. The town is found in Walmara district, Finfine surrounding Oromia special zone, Oromia Regional state, Ethiopia. It is located at a distance of 44 kilo meters west of Addis Ababa at a latitude of 09° 03′ 00’′N and longitude of 38° 30’00’’ E. The altitude of the area is 2391 m.a.s.l and the annual mean temperature ranges between 11-22 °C. Walmara district is bordered by Addis Ababa to the East; Ejere district to the West, Sululta district to the North and Sebeta Hawas district to the south and its weather condition is classified as 39% woinadega and 61% Dega. The area has a short rainy season from March to April and a long rainy season from June to September. There are numerous small and large-scale dairy farms embracing local, exotic and cross-breed. The livestock population of Walmara district is estimated at 188,221 cattle, 108,652 sheep, 15,420 goats 365,294 poultry, 8,062 horses, 1,406 donkeys, 229 mule and 1,853 traditional, 870 transitional beehives.

Study animals

The study animals were cattle, which come from different parts of the country for slaughter. The study involved 600 adult cattle brought from Holeta, Inchini, Ginchi, Ejere and Mugher cattle markets in and around the town. Animals are given a unique number by the abattoir which represents the code for the client

Study type

The study was a cross-sectional study which involved 600 adult cattle selected through systematic random sampling.

Sample size and sampling procedure: The sampling procedure was conducted using systematic random sampling technique from which those animals attained to the abattoir for slaughtering were part of the sample size. The total number of samples size required for the study was calculated based on the formula given by thrusfield [18]. Systemic random sampling method. By rule of thumb where there is no information for an area it is possible to take 20% or 50% prevalence. In this study, it was taken 50% prevalence to calculate the sample size using the following formula.

So as to address the determined sample size, sampling procedure was designed in such a way that 10 animals were sampled and then inspected per day (for 3 days per week) using systematic random sampling.

Examination of liver

After the slaughter of the selected animals the predilection site (liver) was carefully followed and inspected for the presence of fasciola. Besides, identification of the fluke species, worm count and assessment of the severity of liver lesions were carried out. The liver was cut in to slices of about 1 cm thick and put in a broad hard dish of warm water to allow mature fluke lodged in smaller bile ducts to escape. Then all flukes and fluke’s heads were counted. Flukes from each animal were examined macroscopically and classified as adult F. hepatica, and immature fluke on the basis of size and shape.

Severity of infestation was identified by using the degree of pathological lesions over the liver of infected animals. Severity was categorized into light, moderate and severe.

Data analysis

Data collected from abattoir survey was entered in to a Microsoft excel spread sheet and analyzed with STATA 9 of statistical software. The prevalence of fasciolosis was calculated as the number of infected individuals divided by the total number of animals examined X 100. Statistical association of Fasciola prevalence with body condition of the animals was analyzed using Pearson’s Chi square and logistic regression analysis. Breed, sex and age were not included in the analysis because of the very low number of observations; there were only 5 females and 16 exotic cattle while all animals included in this study were adults. P<0.05 was considered significant for all analysis.

The study was conducted in 600 randomly selected adult cattle slaughtered between November 2010 and April 2011in Holeta municipal abattoir. All cattle examined were male except 5 and local except 16.

Six months (November 2010-April 2011) abattoir survey conducted on cattle slaughtered at Holeta municipal abattoir revealed a mean prevalence of 20.34% with condemnation of 122 affected livers out of 600 systematically selected cattle. The result of abattoir examination is presented on species bases in Table 1 below. Fasciola hepatica and were the species identified in this study; F. hepatica being the more prevalent of the two.

Of the 122 livers found infected, 91 (74.6%) were harbouring F. hepatica, while only 19 (15.6%) were affected with F. gigantica. Only small proportions, 5.7 and 4.1%, of the affected livers were found with mixed infection and with immature flukes respectively (Table 2).

Fluke count/burden

A mean fluke burden of 70.3, per infected liver, was recorded during the study period in a total of 122 infected livers. The minimum and maximum fluke counts were 2 and 152 respectively (Table 3).

Severity of lesion

Based on the degree of pathological lesions observed the affected livers were categorized as light (38.52%), moderate (32%) and severely (29.5%) affected as shown in Table 4.

Association between Fasciola and body condition

There was a statistically significant association (P< 0.001) between Fasciola infection and body condition of the animals. Lean animals were found 7.1 times more affected with Fasciola as compared to very fat animals, while cattle with medium body condition were 2.7 times more affected with the parasites as compared to very fat animals Table 5.

The abattoir prevalence of bovine fasciolosis in this study (20.3%) is similar with that of 22.7% prevalence reported by Weldu [19] at Mizan Teferi, 18% by Getu [20] at Wolaita, but significantly higher than the work (12.1%) of Hymanot [21] in East Hararge. However, it is much lower than that of many other reports from different abattoirs in the country: 88.6% at Debre Berahn abattoir [22] 90.7% at Gondar abattoir [14], and 46.6% at Jimma abattoir [4] A much higher prevalence of 53.9% was reported from abattoirs in Zambia [10].

These differences in prevalence within the country are attributed mainly to variations in the ecological and climatic conditions such as altitude, rainfall and temperature among different parts of the country and differences in rainfall and other climatic conditions among years. Differences in management of cattle in different parts of the country might have also contributed to the difference. Some animals are directly brought to the abattoir from grazing while others are intensively fed in feedlots before they are slaughtered. Both species of Fasciola were identified in this study. However F. hepatica was the most prevalent (15.2%) species encountered compared to (3.2%), while 1.17% were mixed infection by both were done in different parts of the country [11,14] all of whom have shown F. hepatica as the most important fluke species in Ethiopian livestock.

Worm count conducted on 122 infected livers revealed a mean burden of 70.3 flukes per liver with maximum and minimum fluke count of 152 and 2 respectively. This finding indicates large fluke burden and implies very high pathogenecity in affected animals slaughtered at the abattoir. According to Soulsby [23] the presence of more than 50 flukes per liver indicates a high pathogenecity. The more flukes an animal has, the more blood it losses and hence the more anemic it becomes [24].

species and immature flukes accounted for only 0.83% of the infection. The higher prevalence of F. hepatica signifies that the affected cattle slaughtered in the abattoir were brought from highlands above 1800m where the environmental conditions are relatively more favorable for the perpetuation of the snail intermediate host for F. hepatica when compared to that of F. gigantica. The present finding agrees with previous reports that High burden of liver flukes with mean fluke burdens ranging from 66 to 78 have also been reported by previous studies in the country [14,25]. Similarly a number of studies elsewhere in the world have also reported large fluke burdens. The assessment of the affected livers for the degree of pathological lesions showed that most of the affected livers were lightly affected (38.5% of the affected livers) while 29.5% and 32% were severely and moderately affected respectively.

Age, breed and sex of the study animals were collected to be considered as risk factors in data analysis. However the number of observation for these traits was not sufficient for analysis for most of the slaughtered animals were in the same age group (adult), near all were local breeds and almost all of the slaughtered cattle were male.

There was a statistically significant association (P< 0.001) between Fasciola prevalence and body condition of the animals. This association is in agreement with Marquardt et al. (2000) who stated that as body condition increases infection with Fasciola decrease because Fasciola is known to damage the parenchyma of the liver which ultimately depletes protein from the host. Moreover, cholangitis and liver cirrhosis induced in chronic fasciolosis could reduce bile output and flow to the duodenum and hence reduce lipid emulsification, digestion and absorption of fatty acid and lipid soluble vitamins.

This study has demonstrated that bovine fasciolosis is prevalent in cattle in the Holeta municipal abattoir due to the fact that the areas of origin of the animals are suitable for the survival of the snail intermediate host and the parasite. As a result of fasciolosis, economic loss due to organ condemnation, morbidity and mortality of infected stock and drug use expenses, which all are direct and indirect losses of merchants leading to unprofitable income?

F.hepatica was the more prevalent fasciola species in Holeta municipal abattoir even if F.gigantica was also found in it.

Based on the above consideration, the following recommendations are listed.

• The farmers, from where the cattle brought, should be well informed about what the diseases is, the way how it transmits and the way how can they control together with the use of anthelmintics.

• Cattle merchants collaborate to posse vet clinic near market centers to take care of the animal with the parasite.

• Individual merchants who feed for finishing cattle communicate with vet. Professional for overall health condition before their lost.

• Cattle merchants need to have the reason why the organ of the animals condemned in abattoir and take lesson onwards.

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