Abstract

A cross-sectional survey of bovine hydatidosis was carried out on 840 local zebu cattle slaughtered at Mekelle municipal abattoir to determine the prevalence, fertility of hydatid cysts and to assess economic loss. The total prevalence rate was found to be 28.09% at the study period of 8 months from October to May. Observation during the survey period also revealed that the infection rate among different age groups of examined animals were found to be statistically significant (p<0.05), with the highest in old aged cattle (31.98%) followed by adult (21.63%) and young (17.65%). There was statistically significant difference between infection rate and body condition score of the animals with 37.24% lean, 26.27% medium and 21.64% fat body condition. More than 98% of the infected organs were lungs and livers, with higher prevalence in lungs than liver. Out of the total 949 cyst identified, 65.54% were found in lung, 32.88% in liver, 1.01% in heart and 0.53% in kidney. Four hundred and eighty nine of the cysts were small, 160 were medium, 180 were large and 115 were calcified. The fertile, sterile and calcified cysts were found to be 17.44, 45.27 and 37.29%, respectively. Twenty three percent of the fertile cysts were viable and the rest were not. The total annual economic loss was estimated to be 5,200 US Dollar. Furthermore, attempts were made to correlate the origin of the animal and there was no significance between highland and lowland areas.

Key words: Abattoir, economic loss, hydatidosis, prevalence, zebu cattle.