Veterinary Science & Technology

Background: Giardia is a ubiquitous intestinal protozoa causing giardiasis worldwide within the vast majority of domestic/wild mammals and humans. There is very few information on the occurrence Giardia in cattle and sheep in Ethiopia. This study was conducted from November, 2022 to August 2022 in three selected areas of central Ethiopia (Holeta, Bishoftu and Adama) to estimate the prevalence of Giardia infection in cattle and sheep, identify risk factors associated with the occurrence of the parasite and estimate the infection intensity or burden of the parasite.

Materials and methods: 687 fecal samples were collected and examined by zinc sulfate floatation technique using Lugol’s iodine solution to identify cysts of Giardia. Pictures of Giardia cysts were captured using camera fixed to a microscope. The intensity of Giardia infection was estimated semi quantitatively by counting the average number of cysts in 10 randomly selected fields of the microscope. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS version 26 statistical software by employing descriptive statistics such as percentage, Chi square test, and logistic regression and Mann-Whitney test of non-parametric values.

Results: Out of 687 fecal samples examined by coprology, 170 (24.7%) of cattle and sheep were infected with Giardia. The specific prevalence of Giardia in cattle and sheep was 27.4% and 15.5% respectively.

Conclusions: Breed, body condition, study site/farm, production system and fecal consistency were found to be risk factors associated with the occurrence of Giardia infection in cattle while only agro ecology was found to be associated with the occurrence of Giardia infection in sheep. Majority of Giardia infections in both cattle and sheep were found to be mild. The study indicates that Giardia infections are widely distributed in cattle and sheep in the study areas and require proper control and prevention measures.

Cattle health monitoring is essential in the modern world, because of the high demand for dairy products. Regular monitoring is essential to extend the lifecycle of cattle and maintain the quality of dairy products. Unfortunately, observing the health of cattle regularly is difficult in large farms where workers do not have enough time to do so. This paper described IOT devices such as skin temperature, heart rate, and motion sensor. Using this device, you can monitor cattle’s heart rate, activity level, heat stress, the surrounding temperature, and sleep tracking. The IOT system is integrated with the cloud. A machine learning algorithm predicts the health status of cattle based on the sensor’s real time data, observing the real time health status will alert the user if cattle suffer from a health issue, and a mobile app is developed to observe data visualization. Cattle health monitoring systems are designed to monitor the health of individual cattle and quickly diagnose and treat sick cattle.

Background: Gastrointestinal parasites are one of the globally occurring most important diseases that include the groups of cestodes, trematodes, the coccidian and gastrointestinal nematodes, particularly the strongyles are the most pathogenic parasites and limit the production of sheep, goats, cattle, equine.

Methods: Across sectional study was carried out in West Shewa zone of the Oromia regional state from August 2019 to November 2021. Flotation and McMaster techniques were used to recover and quantify Nematode, Monezia eggs and Eimeria oocysts from 659 rectally collected faeces. The parasite causing the infection was identified by the floating method, and the infection intensity was calculated by the modified McMaster method. The severity of infection was classified as mild (50-799 EPG), moderate (800-1200 EPG), or severe (>1200 EPG). Coproculture was conducted to identify strongyle species.

Results and discussion: Out of 659 overall prevalence of gastrointestinal parasites in sheep was 546 (82.7%) (95% CI=79.8-85.6). Among the gastrointestinal parasites genera found in the study, Strongyle spp. 354 (53.72%), Eimeria sp. 375(56.90%), Monezia 120 (18.21%), Strongyloides sp. 113 (17.15%) and Trichuris spp. 76 (11.53%) were identified. The EPG/OPG count showed 2080.96, 1424.78, 240.64, 107.91 and 17.45 burdens of Eimeria, Strongyle spp., Monezia, Strongyloides and Trichuris spp. respectively in decreasing order. Among the positive fecal samples, 204 (30.96%) had single infection and while 342(51.89%) samples had mixed infections. Among sheep population (28.07%) had showed a light infection, followed by (21.85%) heavy infection and (6.98%) moderate infection intensity with gastrointestinal nematodes. The most frequently occurring nematodes were Trichostrongylus spp. (33.4%), followed by Haemonchus spp. 581 (30.7%), Bunosstomum spp. 387 (20.5%), Osephagostomum spp. 158 (8.4%) and Teladorsagia 84 (4.4%), whereas, Chabertia spp. 49 (2.6%) was the least identified gastrointestinal nematode. Among the potential risk factors considered in the study, body condition, season, age and sex were associated with the occurrence of Nematode species; season, age, study areas and body condition with the occurrence of Eimeria species whereas only body condition and agro ecology were associated with the occurrence of Monezia infections (p<0.05). In general, the occurrences of high prevalence of gastrointestinal parasites in the study area suggest that they are major constraints for production and productivity of sheep.

Conclusion: The present study indicated that gastrointestinal parasitic strangle nematodes, Monezia and Eimeria are highly prevalent in sheep in the study areas. This study identified that season, study area, age and body condition of the sheep as risk factors for GIT parasites in sheep were significantly associated with the prevalence of git strongyle nematode, Eimeria and Monezia species infections of sheep.

Equines are very susceptible to the disease, and horses that come into contact with rabid animals are particularly at risk. The virus in the horse’s body continues from days to months before signs develop, and once signs appear, it is fatal. Rabies is a global zoonotic disease, however due to successful prevention standards few countries are declared to be rabies free, like Islands that have a strict quarantine program. Clinical signs of rabies in the early stages are confused with other diseases like colic and normal aggressive tendencies. Diagnosis of rabies must be verified with confirmative laboratory tests. As a result of the concentration of the rabies virus in the secreted saliva from the infected horse it is mainly transmitted through its bite or if the infected saliva come in contact with the eyes, nose, or mouth, or broken skin of other animal or human. There is no treatment for it till now, so it must be prevented through vaccination, and infected animal should be euthanized, in addition to effective quarantine program.