Gastrointestinal Helminthic Challenges in Sheep and Goats in Afro-Asian Region: A Review

Abstract

Sheep and goats, being hardy and prolific in their growth, play a crucial role in cultural and socioeconomic life of rural poor under privileged people in Afro-Asian countries by providing meat, milk, wool and hide to them. Gastrointestinal helminthic infections are worldwide problem in ruminants. They results considerable loss in them causing mortality and poor production. Various helminthes types like trematodes, cestodes and nematodes are prevalent in different climates and geographical regions depending on rearing systems, intermediate host's availability and management practices. Epidemiology of helminthic diseases, though variable at times, is determined by various factors like treatment, climate and poverty (socio-economic and traditional practices). The study oversees gastrointestinal helminthic challenges in goats and sheep faced in Afro-Asian region in last decade. Methodology involves exhaustive exercise of screening and massive literature hunt which included published research, both abstracts and full length papers on the subject in last 10 years in addition to authors own observations. The diseases like Fasciolosis, Dicrocoelosis, Amphistomosis in trematodes, Monieziosis, Avitellinosis in cestodes and Haemonchosis, Trichostronglylosis, Oesophagostomosis, Trichuriosis, Strongyloidosis in nematodes were still serious challenges in the region threatening the small ruminant production. Frequent reports on Marshallgia, Ostertagia, Nematodirus, Stilesia, Thysaniezia spp. from this region showed emerging threats. Infections like Camelostrongylus, Graphidiops, Parabronema and Skrjabinema spp. were scarcely distributed. The paper reviews scientific work and developments of last 10 years on occurrence, distribution and epidemiology of common gastrointestinal helminthic infections of sheep and goats in Afro-Asian region with future research prospective in light of newer scientific approaches.

The prevalence of intestinal parasite infections in goats from smallholder farms in Northern Thailand

“…The types of parasites found in this study included gastrointestinal nematodes, cestodes, trematodes and protozoa. Our observations were similar to those of some other studies conducted in Asia and abroad, which described strongyle infection as a major problem in small ruminants (Zvinorova et al, 2016;Lambertz et al, 2018;Windsor et al, 2018;Sharma, 2020). The proportions of the nematode genera according to L 3 larvae in the current study in which H. contortus was the most prevalent, followed by Strongyloides spp.…”

On-farm welfare assessment in meat goat does raised in semi-intensive and extensive systems in semiarid regions of Ceará, Northeast, Brazil

“…Occurrence of animals with soft feces on both E and S farms showed that this evaluation is more accurate when performed individually than in group (Table 4). Presence of animals with dry feces on both sides of tail indicated that goats had diarrhea, possibly due to gastrointestinal helminthes, common and serious threats for small ruminants, that cause low productivity, morbidity and mortality on animals (SHARMA et al, 2020). Occurrence of abscess could be due to infectious diseases, as Caseous Lymphadenitis (SMITH & SHERMAN, 2009) or improper management of vaccination being a probable cause of more animals with abscesses on S farms.…”

Welfare of Native Goat Breeds in Serbia—Emphasis on Parasitological Infections

“…in small ruminants was reported to cause severe pathogenic effects, viz. disturbance of gastrointestinal motility, secretion, diarrhea, and anemia along with reduced slaughter yield, increased water content, and reduction in protein and fat ( 53 ).…”

“…Dicrocoelium spp. hepatic infection is responsible for direct losses in sheep and goat production due to the discarding of parasitized livers and indirect losses through costs associated with anthelmintic treatments ( 53 ). It has been reported in Italy ( 54 ), Iran ( 55 ), India ( 56 ), Nepal ( 57 ), Malaysia ( 58 ), and Nigeria ( 59 ).…”

“…It has been reported in Italy ( 54 ), Iran ( 55 ), India ( 56 ), Nepal ( 57 ), Malaysia ( 58 ), and Nigeria ( 59 ). According to Sharma et al ( 53 ), dicrocoeliosis remained little known and underestimated since those infected are asymptomatic and masked by the presence of pathological effects of multiple parasitic infections in ruminants.…”