Prevalence Of Ovine Lung Worm Infection In Mekelle Town, North Ethiopia

A cross-sectional study was conducted in Mekelle town, North Ethiopia from November 2010 to March 2011 to estimate the prevalence of ovine lungworm infection and to investigate some of the risk factors associated with it. Faecal samples were collected from randomly selected 402 sheep under extensive and semi intensive husbandry systems to examine first stage larvae (L1) using Bearmann technique. One hundred were subjected to postmortem examination to detect the presence of adult lungworm parasites. The overall prevalence recorded by faecal and postmortem examination was found to be 13.4% and 15%, respectively. The proportions of infection by Dictyocaulus filaria (D. filaria), Mullerius capillarius (M. capillaris) and Prostrongylus rufescens (P.rufescens) were found to be 5.9%, 3.5% and 2.74%, respectively. Lambs, female animals and those sampled during November had higher infection prevalence than animals in corresponding groups with statistically significant variation (p 0.05). Postmortem examination carried out on 100 sheep revealed that coproscopic examination had limited value in terms of estimating the prevalence of lung worm infection in live sheep and implies as there was no direct correlation between the adult worm burden and faecal larval output. Thus, lungworm infection is an important parasitic disease in and around Mekelle and further investigation is warranted to assess its impact on the economy and to reduce its incidence.