Prevalence and Identification of Ovine Lungworms in and Around Assela Town, Central Ethiopia

2 Abstract: The objectives of this study were to determine the prevalence, identify the species involved and assess possible risk factors of ovine lung worm infection in and around Assela, Arsi zone, Ethiopia. Faecal and postmortem examinations were conducted on 402 and 100 sheep, respectively. The overall prevalence of lungworm infection was 58% and 60.5% found by fecal and postmortem examinations, respectively. The proportion of infection with the individual lungworm species revealed, Dictyocaulus filaria (D. filaria) (26.1%), Protostrongylus rufescens (P. rufescens) (15.9%), Muellerius capillaris (M. capillaris) (11.2%) and mixed infection (4.7%). A statistically significant difference (P<0.05) was found among the three study areas with an infection rates of 50.7%, 52.2% and 70.9% for Katarganet (low), Kombolcha (medium) and Simbero (high altitude) respectively indicating direct relation of infection with altitude. The prevalence of all the three species of lungworm infection showed a significant difference (P<0.05) between young and adult age groups and in animals with respiratory signs. Animals with poor body condition were highly infected (75.0%) and with a significant difference (P<0.05) than those with moderate (62.7%) and good (44.9%) body conditions. The infection rate between male and female sheep showed significant difference (P<0.05) with prevalence rate of 53.6% and 61.1%, respectively. The overall result of the study have shown that D. filaria is the most common lungworm species not only in its high prevalence rate but also in its high degree of association with occurrence of clinical respiratory signs, poor body condition, young age groups and high altitude.