Prevalence of Fasciola Gigantica Eggs in Sheep and Goats and on Salad Vegetables in Zaria and Environs, Nigeria

Abstract

Fasciolosis is a parasitic common  in  ruminants,  especially  cattle, buffaloes, sheep, goats and swine.
It may, however, affect if they consume contaminated vegetables or raw and improperly cooked liver from an animal infected with Fasciola gigantica.
To determine the prevalence of Fasciola gigantica eggs  in  sheep  and goats and on salad vegetables, four hundred (400) faecal and 180  salad samples were collected between July and September 2013 within and environs,

Nigeria and examined using the formal ether sedimentation technique and Sodium Chloride flotation methods.
The overall prevalence of F. gigantica eggs in ruminants was 13.0%, with sheep having a higher prevalence (17.0%) than goats (9.0%).
Sheep and goats of greater than two years had significantly (p<0.05) higher prevalence of 22.2% and 20.0% of F. gigantica eggs respectively as compared to a lower prevalence of 8.1% and 2.4% in  the  younger  ones between 0 to 2 years.
The difference in prevalence of F. gigantica eggs between the adult and young ruminants was statistically significant (p<0.05).
The prevalence of F.  gigantica  eggs was significantly (p<0.05) higher in animals with poor body condition  (34.0%)  than  those with medium and good body condition with prevalence of  11.3%  and  1.8%  respectively.

Introduction

1.1 Background of Study
Fasciolosis also known as fascioliasis, fasciolasis, distomatosis and liver rot, is an important helminth disease caused by two trematodes Fasciola hepatica (the common liver fluke) and Fasciola gigantica (giant liver fluke).
This disease belongs to the snail-borne trematode zoonoses. In Europe, the Americas and Oceania only F. hepatica is a concern, but the distributions of both species overlap in many countries of Africa and Asia (Mas-Coma et al., 2005).
The definitive host range is very broad and includes many herbivorous mammals and humans. The life cycle includes freshwater snails from family Lymnaeidae, as an intermediate host of the parasite (Torgerson and Claxton, 1999).
Adult flukes of both species are localized in the bile ducts of the liver or gallbladder. Fasciola hepatica has a cosmopolitan distribution.
Fasciola gigantica is limited to the tropics and has been recorded in Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and South and Eastern Asia (Torgerson and Claxton, 1999).
Mixed infections with both gigantica and F. hepatica may occur in areas where the ecology is conducive for replication of the snail intermediate host (Graber, 1975).

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