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This study was conducted to investigate the prevalence of besnoitiosis and associated histopathological changes amongst apparently healthy cattle and goats at slaughter in Maiduguri central abattoir Borno state, Nigeria. A total of 100 skin sections each, from the neck region were randomly collected, preserved in 10% formalin and later taken to the laboratory and subjected to histopathology to detect Besnoitia cysts and associated histopathological changes. This study revealed an overall prevalence of 2% in cattle.Out of the 100 skin sectionsexamined from cattle, 38 were from bulls and 62 were from cows. Of the 38 skin sections from bulls examined, 2(5.3%) were positive for Besnoitia cyst and none (0%) was positive for the cow's (P>0.05). Similarly, of the 100 skin sections examined, 80 were from Wadara breed and 20 from Red bororo. Out of the 80 skin sections examined from Wadara breed, 2(2.5%) were positive for Besnoitia cyst and none (0%) was positive for Red bororo (P>0.05). However, out of 100 skin sections from goats examined, none was positive for Besnoitia cysts revealing 0% prevalence.All the skin sections sampled and examined were from adult cattle and goats. Out of the 100 skin sections examined from the adult cattle, 2(2.0%) were positive for Besnoitia cysts. A skin section examined from Wadara breed showed localized area of suppurative dermatitis in the dermis of the skin characterized by massive neutrophilic infiltrations. This is the first report showing the prevalence of besnoitiosis in apparently healthy cattle and goats in Borno state, north eastern Nigeria.

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Acute infectious bursal disease (IBD) outbreak caused by virulent IBD virus undermines profitable chicken production in Nigeria. Veterinary clinic-based passive surveillance is carried out by postmortem diagnosis of clinical cases submitted during disease outbreaks. Records of IBD outbreaks from two veterinary hospitals in Maiduguri, Nigeria, were extracted among all disease outbreaks in chicken flocks in the period 2008-2018. Data showed that IBD outbreaks occurred in 493 (7.6%, [95% CI: 7.0-8.3%]) out of 6,486 disease outbreaks in chicken flocks within the period. The year-specific prevalence of outbreaks varied from 1.6% (95% CI: 0.9-2.3%) to 17.3% (95% CI: 12.9-21.7%) and fitted a linear trend (r = -0.73; P<0.01) over the years, with significant (P<0.001) association with the years. The chicken-type-specific prevalence varied significantly (P < 0.05) with 25.0% in Noilers (dual-purpose), 7.2% in broilers, 7.1% in layers, 9.1% in local chickens (9.1%) and 17.4% in exotic cockerels. The ages of chickens at the time of outbreaks were 2-27 weeks; modal age was 4-5 weeks while mean age was 5.0±1.7 weeks. The mortality rate was 12.6% (95% CI: 5.9-16.2) out of total flock size of 38,485 in 2015-2018. Specific lesions for diagnosis of acute IBD during surveillance were acute exudative inflammatory swelling of bursa of Fabricius [+/-hemorrhages] (90.9%), along with hemorrhages in thigh, leg and/or breast muscles (72.2%), mucosal hemorrhages at proventriculus-ventriculus junction [+/- enteritis] (24.9%), and nephropathy (7.7%); but few cases lacked bursal swelling (9.1%). Thus, acute IBD outbreak in chickens was endemic with time-related risk factors unaccounted for during passive surveillance.

Suppurative thyroiditis is a rare but potentially fatal bacterial disease. Most bacterial infections of the thyroid gland occur via the pyriform sinus fistulae and by hematogenous spread from systemic bacterial diseases. A 2 year-old Yankasa ewe was presented with complaint of anorexia, weakness and a swelling 4-5cm around the ventral neck region near the larynx. Swelling was identified as abscesses. The cut section of the gland contained a thick creamy purulent exudate from which Staphylococcus aureus was isolated. Microscopically there was necrosis and accumulation of neutrophils and macrophages in the thyroid gland. The liver showed fatty degeneration of the hepatocytes. Staphylococcus aureus, a pyogenic bacterium is a normal micro biota but can also be an opportunistic pathogen especially with immunosuppression. Most of the published literature on acute suppurative thyroiditis are related to humans. Hence in this report we present a rare case of thyroiditis caused by Staphylococcus aureus in Ovine species.