Prevalence of Ovine Lung Worms- Around Bahir Dar, East Africa, Ethiopia

A cross sectional study was conducted in and around Bahir Dar from October, 2011 to March, 2012 with the aim of determining the prevalence of ovine lungworm infection, to assess associated risk factors and to identify lungworm species involved in the area. In this study a total of 456 feacal samples from sheep of all age groups, management, body condition score and both sexes were examined using modified Baerman technique to extract L1 larvae. The finding indicated that 92(20.2%) were found infected with different species of lungworms namely; D. filaria (11.2%), M. capillaries (6.1%) and P. rufescens (0.7%). Mixed infection was observed in 2.2% of the cases. There was a significant difference (P=0.04) in the prevalence of lungworm infection with regard to sex (female 24.5% and male 13.4%), management system (extensive 20.9% and semi- intensive 9.7%). The prevalence of lung worm in different age groups ( 3years 9.5%) and body conditions (poor 24%, medium 19.8% and good 19.6%) was not statistically significant (P>0.05).In this study younger sheep were found more affected withDictyocaulus filaria(D. filaria), while older once were more infested with Muellerius capillaries (M.capillaries). Additionally 200 sheep from Bahir Dar Municipal abattoir and private hotel Azewa,were examined postmortem and 121(60.5%) were found to harbor different species of lungworms. The overall prevalence of ovine lungworm infection was found to be higher in postmortem (60.5%) than coproscopic examination (20.2%). It can be summarized that the high prevalence of Verminous pneumonia was as the result of the three lung worm species. Finally possible control measures of the disease are forwarded.