Distribution and factors associated with Fasciola hepatica infection in cattle in the south of Espírito Santo State, Brazil

Abstract

Fasciolosis is a disease that affects the liver parenchyma and bile ducts of numerous animals, including humans, which causes economic losses and threatens public health. The present work aimed at reporting the distribution and factors connected with Fasciola hepatica infection in cattle in ten municipalities in southern Espírito Santo, Brazil, between 2008 and 2009. During this period, 50 rural properties in ten cities were analyzed and fecal samples from 10% of the cattle on each farm were collected. Of the 717 samples analyzed, 154 (21.33%) presented Fasciola hepatica eggs. As for the 50 rural properties studied, 32 (64%) had animals positive for fasciolosis. Throughout the evaluation, it was observed that 42 (84%) rural properties had flooded areas, 33 (66%) were located at altitudes less than 226 meters, in 36 (72%) mollusks were found, 47 (94%) had other definitive hosts (horses, sheep, goats) and 25 (50%) had previous cases of bovine fasciolosis. The present results showed a high rate of bovine fasciolosis in the analyzed region whereas infected animals are present in all the municipalities. Based on statistical analysis, it was concluded that there was an association between the presence of flooded areas and other definitive hosts in rural properties where bovine fasciolosis was detected

Distribution of bovine fasciolosis and associated factors in south Espírito Santo, Brazil: an update

“…Of these, 220 were positive for F. hepatica by stool examinations, resulting in an infection percentage of 19.01% among the animals. Although the difference in relation to the number of positive animals on farms and the number of positive municipalities, the obtained results were similar that those found by Alves et al (2011) in 10 municipalities in this region. In the present study, the figures were 44.34% (51/115) and 78.23% (18/23) respectively, which can be partly explained by sample sizes and the geomorphological characteristics and topography of the municipalities (MARTINS et al, 2012).…”

“…In the first stage, between 2008 and 2010, data collected by Alves et al (2011) To obtain the minimum number of farms needed to detect at least one farm with infected animals per municipality, the table in Thrusfield (1990) was used, taking the expected proportion of positive farms to be 50% and the number of farms per municipality to be ≥ 40 (IBGE, 2006). A non-probabilistic sample of five farms per municipality was selected, thus totaling 115 farms.…”

“…However, the slaughter data do not always allow identification of an animal's source. Later on, in a study carried out in ten municipalities in the south of the state of Espirito Santo, Alves et al (2011) found cattle infected in all of them. These results confirmed that fasciolosis was autochthonous among cattle in this region.…”

Autochthonous infection of buffaloes and cattle by Fasciola hepatica in Minas Gerais, Brazil

“…Their data corroborate the present paper. Alves et al (2011) reported on the distribution of and factors connected with Fasciola hepatica infection in cattle in southern Espírito Santo and analyzed 50 farms selected in ten municipalities of the state. These authors observed a frequency of fasciolosis of 21.33% and emphasized that the area studied presented great epidemiological importance due to its geographical position covering two significant hydrographic basins.…”

“…Among these favorable conditions is the presence of snails of the genus Lymnaea, which are intermediate hosts for F. hepatica. Thus, such conditions also include the climatic and environmental factors that provide a suitable habitat for these snails, such as high humidity and adequate temperature and rainfall (LIMA et al, 2009;ALVES et al, 2011;MARTINS et al, 2012).…”