Prevalence of Babesiosis among Cattle Slaughtered at Kano Abattoir, Kano State, Nigeria

Abstract

Babesiosis, a haemoparasitic disease caused by Babesia sp. and transmitted by ticks. The disease imposes a serious burden on the healthcare infrastructure of both the cattle and their handlers. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of Babesiosis among cattle slaughtered at Kano abattoir, Kano State, Nigeria. A total of 132 cattle were examined. Blood samples were collected from the jugular vein of the cattle at point of slaughter into sample tubes containing ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA) and transported to the Medical Laboratory Science Department Bayero University, Kano, for parasitological examination. The Giemsa-stained slides were observed under high powered microscope at x100 objective lens. The remaining blood was used to determine the PCV of cattle using microhaematocrit technique. Of the 132 cattle sampled, 91(69.0%) were males while 41(31.0%) were females. By age category, majority of the cattle 82(62.1%) were adults while 50(37.9%) were young. Distribution of cattle by breed showed that 92(69.7%), 31(23.5%) and 9(6.8%) of the cattle were white Fulani, Red Bororo and Sokoto Gudali respectively. The prevalence of 11.4% was recorded for Babesia spp. And (4.5%) for Trypanosoma spp. There was age, breed and anaemia predilection for the babesiosis observed (p=0.000) and there was no gender predilection for Babesiosis (p=0.840). The finding of this study shows that Babesiosis and
other haemoparasitic disease are prevalent in the studied abattoir. Proper vector control methods and treatment with drugs in some of the source ranches of the cattle would be necessary to avoid vertical transmission between infected cattle and susceptible ones.