Prevalence and geographical distribution of bovine cysticercosis in the mesoregion of Northern Minas Gerais

Abstract

The knowledge of the prevalence of bovine cysticercosis is important for the implementation of control programs. The objective was to evaluate the prevalence and geographical distribution of bovine cysticercosis in Northern Minas Gerais. For that, 14,556 cattle were evaluated during the federal post-mortem inspection in 27 municipalities of five microregions: Janaúba, Montes Claros, Januária, Pirapora and Bocaiúva. The prevalence of Cysticercus bovis was 1.03% with distribution in all microregions evaluated of the northern Minas Gerais. All municipalities with a sampling number of cattle slaughtered above 543 showed positive animals for cysticercosis. The microregions of Bocaiúva, Montes Claros, Janaúba, Januária and Pirapora presented a prevalence of cysticercosis at 2.11%, 1.17%, 1.01%, 0.90% and 0.56%, respectively. The microregions of Montes Claros and Januária presented a greater chance of finding positive cattle for cysticercosis. As there are positive cases of cysticercosis in all microregions evaluated, there is a risk to human health.

Prevalence and risk factors of cysticercosis in cattle tracking

“…To support a risk-based control system, an appropriate monitoring system is essential and should include slaughterhouse, laboratorial, provenance and health authority records (Guidelines…, 2014). The worldwide recommendation is that proposals to control cysticercosis should include the whole production chain, from the property to the consumer's table, which requires better knowledge of the origin of the animals involved in the control programs to define a strategy that is more streamlined for each region (Pawlowski et al, 2005;Duarte et al, 2016;Nastasijević et al, 2020).…”

“…However, tracing this parasite also enables identification of foci of bovine cysticercosis, positive animals on properties, the origin of these animals, the management system practiced, and possible specific risk factors involved in transmission of the disease in the respective property. This type of analysis may help to identify endemic regions for the disease and to develop more effective control programs, thus ensuring safe and quality meat products for the consumer (Meliker and Sloan, 2011;Oliveira et al, 2020).…”

Main causes of cattle slaughter condemnation under the state sanitary inspection in Bahia, Brazil

“…However, different causes of carcass and organ condemnation can show higher condemnation rates depending on the region of the country, the sanitary inspection and the technology used for animal husbandry and handling. Cysticercosis, hydatidosis, and tuberculosis are the important causes of condemnation of cattle slaughter in the states Rio Grande do Sul (Bica et al, 2018;Bem Bidone et al, 2021) and Minas Gerais (Oliveira et al, 2020). According to Silva, Groff, Bassani and Pianho (2016), cachexia was responsible for 24.74% of the total carcass condemnations in one slaughterhouse in Paraná, Brazil.…”