Prevalence of Bovine Trypanosomosis in Didessa Woreda, Oromiya Region, Ethiopia

Abstract

A cross sectional study was conducted at Didessa Woreda, Oromiya region, south west Ethiopia. The study was carried out from November, 2011 to April 2012 on indigenous cattle breed managed under mixed corop-livestok production system, to determine the prevalence of bovine trypanosomosis. This study employs parasitological survey by the use of Buffy coat examination, thin smear and hematological study. The overall prevalence of bovine trypanosomosis in the present study was 5.47%. The predominant species recovered was Trypanosome congolense (61.9%) followed by Trypanosome vivax (23.8%) the Trypanasome brucei (9.5%). Mixed infection due to Trypanosome congolense and Trypanosome vivax (4.7%) was also recorded in the study. Discrepancy in the prevalence of Trypanosome infection was recorded in the different age groups, between sex and different body conditioned animals, but the difference was not statically siginificant (p>0.05). The mean PCV of parasitemic animals was significantly lower (21.15=4.675) than the parasitemic animals (24.316=4.93) (p<0.05). Although the present study came up with low prevalence of bovine trypanosomiasis in the stydy area, the potential impact of this disease on production and productivity of cattle shall not undermined. Therefore, sustainable community based tsetse and trypanosomsis control program should be implemented.