Abstract

A cross-sectional study was conducted from December 2016 to April 2017 in Metu district, Southwestern Ethiopia with the objectives of determining the infection rate of trypanosomosis in cattle and assessing apparent density of tsetse flies. A conventional parasitological study using concentration technique was used for the determination of prevalence of trypanosomosis, whereas baited traps were used for the vector survey. Study animals were randomly selected (n=456), sampled and tested for the trypanosomosis. The overall prevalence of trypanosomosis was found to be 3.29% [95% confidence interval (CI)]. The relative infection rate of trypanosome species was 2.63, 0.21 and 0.43% for Trypanosoma congolense, Trypanosoma vivax and mixed infection of the two species, respectively. Significantly, the highest infection (10.13%) was recorded in poor conditioned cattle, followed by medium (4.25%) and good (0.42%) (P<0.05). Even though, the difference is not significant, females (10.71%) are more infected with the parasites than males (3.84%) (P>0.05). The mean packed cell volume (PCV) values of aparasitaemic and parasitaemic animals were 25.60 and 31.16%, respectively with a statistically significant difference (P 0.05). Three species of the genus Glossina: Glossina pallidipes, Glossina fuscipes fuscipes, Glossina tachnoides and Tabanus genera of other blood sucking flies were captured. The apparent density of Glossina species was 3.50 fly/trap/day. Trypanosomosis and its biological vector are prevalent in the study areas, requiring appropriate intervention measures.

Key words: Metu, prevalence, trypanosomosis, tsetse fly.