The study was carried out to show the prevalence of Babesia canis and Hepatozoon canis in dogs within Zaria. Between the months of May and August 2010, blood samples collected from 150 dogs were processed using Giemsa stained thin blood smear and examined for the presence of B. canis and H. canis. Of the 150 dogs sampled, 84 (56%) were males and 66 (44%) were females. 106 (70.7%) were adults aged 1 year and above while 44 (29.3%) were dogs below the age of 1 year. Local breeds numbered 111 dogs constituting (74%) of the total number sampled, while 20 (13.3%) and 19 (12.7%) were foreign and cross breed respectively. One hundred and five (70%) of all dogs sampled were unconfined while 45 (30%) were confined. B. canis and or H. canis occurred in 26(17.3%) dogs, of which 10(38.5%) and 12(46.2%) had single infection of the former and later respectively, while 4(15.4%) had mixed infections of both parasites. The occurrence of the haemoparasites was significantly higher (X 2 = 12.20, p < 0.05, OR= 4.467) in younger dogs than in the adults, but there was no statistically significant association between the occurrence of the parasites and the breed (X 2 = 0.3794, p > 0.05) or sex (X 2 = 1.237, p > 0.05) of the sampled dogs. All the infected dogs were as well infested by the tick vector Rhipicephalus sanguineus with the non-confined dogs having significantly higher (X 2 = 37.93, p < 0.05) tick infestation rates. The infestation rates in both confined and non-confined groups had no statistically significant association to the respective levels of haemo-parasitism.(X 2 = 0.1410, p < 0.05, OR= 1.24).

This study was carried out to examine the anticoccidial effect of Citrus aurantium L ethanol leaf extract against the oocysts of Eimeria tenella isolated from broiler chickens. The fresh leaves of C. aurantium were collected from Emirate Garden, Katsina, authenticated, air-dried at room temperature, pulverised by milling and subjected to extraction. Sporulation inhibition bioassay was employed to examine the activity of C. aurantium ethanol extract on the sporulation of E. tenella oocysts. In this assay, deep well petri dishes containing 100 unsporulated oocysts were subjected to 2 ml of five different concentrations of the extract (2.5, 5, 10, 20 and 30 mg/ml) in triplicates while oocysts sporulated in 2.5% potassium dichromate solution (K2Cr2O7) and phenol served as control groups. The content of the Petri dishes was stirred to ensure adequate oxygenation. The experimental set-up was incubated at room temperature and examined after 24 and 48 hours for sporulation inhibition. The sporulated and unsporulated oocysts were determined by counting using the Mcmaster apparatus. Phytochemical screening of C. aurantium revealed the presence of alkaloids, saponins, carbohydrates, steroids and tannins. The result showed that ethanolic leaf extract of C. aurantium to possess anticoccidial activity against unsporulated oocysts of E. tenella in a concentration-dependent manner. There was significant difference (p < 0.05) in the sporulation inhibition activity, with the highest (97 ± 0.8%) at 30 mg/ml and the lowest activity (8 ± 1.0%) at 2.5 mg/ml concentration of the extract after 48 hours of incubation. There was a general trend of sporulation inhibition with an increase in the concentration of the plant extract. The findings from this study showed ethanol leaf extract of C. aurantium possesses a remarkable In vitro anticoccidial effect that may be further scientifically explicated.

The two different strains of the same species (gambiense and rhodesiense) infect human populations only but are found in slightly different habitats and reservoirs. The gambiense strain is an