Epidemiology of small ruminants lungworm in Gedeb Asasa district, West Arsi zone, Ethiopia

A cross-sectional study was carried out in Gedeb Asasa district of West Arsi zone, Ethiopia from November 2016 to April 2017 to identify and determine prevalence of small ruminant lungworm species and assess potential risk factors. A total of 400 fecal samples were randomly collected from 288 sheep and 112 goats in the study area and collected samples were cultured and first stage larvae (L1) were isolated using modified Baerman technique. Isolated first stage larvae (L1) were examined and identified morphologically using microscope. The present study recorded an overall prevalence of 44.8%. The prevalence of lungworm infection by animal species was determined to be (45.5%) and (42.9%) for sheep and goat, respectively. The study identified three lungworm nematode species of small ruminants: Dictyocaulus filaria, Muelleris capillaris, Protostronylus rufescens along with mixed infection by coprological larval morphology identification system with respective prevalence of 17%, 14.5%, 5.3% and 8% applying descriptive statistics. Statistically, higher lungworm infection rate in female (48.8%) recorded compared to male (37.5%), in young (53.3%) compared to adult (36.3%) in animals with poor body condition (66.9%) followed by medium (37.5%) and good body condition (31.9%) animals and non- dewormed animals (49.2%) compared to dewormed ones (37.2%).  To determine the existence of association between the disease and risk factors (sex, animal origin, animal species, age, body condition, anthelmintic treatment), Chi-Square statistics was employed and only four (sex, age, body condition, anthelmintic treatment) were found to have association with the disease. Multivariate logistic regression analysis confirmed the existence of statistically significant impact (P<0.005) of the four factors (sex, age, body condition, anthelmintic treatment) on small ruminants lungworm infection dynamics.