Prevalence of gastrointestinal parasitic infections, haemoprotozoan diseases and their associated risk factors in sheep and goat in selected hilly areas of Bangladesh

Abstract

Gastrointestinal parasitism and haemoparasitism in small ruminants are known to impose substantial economic burdens on owners. A cross sectional study was conducted to investigate the prevalence of gastrointestinal parasites and haemoparasites of small ruminants from three unions of Khagrachari district, namely Panchori, Golabari and Sadar. The fecal samples, blood samples and tick samples were collected from a total of 279 goats (97) and sheep (182) from study areas. All the specimens were subjected to microscopic examination technique first then blood samples (118) and tick samples (12) were examined by polymerase chain reaction for the detection of haemoparasites. Selected positive samples (9) were sent for sequencing and then phylogenetic analysis was done using sequenced data. The overall prevalence of gastrointestinal parasitic infection was found 55.67% (54) and 63.19% (115) in goats and sheep, respectively. The prevalence of parasites was variable with Fasciola sp. (27.84%), Strongyloides sp. (15.38%), Trichostrongylus sp. (14.84%), Paramphistomum sp. (9.89%), Trichuris sp. (8.24%) and Oesophagostomum sp. (6.04%). Overall haemoprotozoan infections were 42.27% and 40.11% in goats and sheep, respectively. The prevalence of Babesia sp., Anaplasma sp. and Theileria sp. were detected (38.64%, 29.73%), (38.64%, 28.38%) and (25.00%, 17.57%) in goats and sheep respectively by polymerase chain reaction. Parasitic ova and haemoparasitic infection rate in male and female exhibited no significant variations (p>0.05) between them. The infection was significantly higher in adult than young. Seasonal variation was found between winter and summer season. Haemoparasites are more prevalent in summer but opposite observation was found in case of gastrointestinal parasites. Two types of ticks were identified where Boophilus sp. is more prevalent than Haemophysalis sp. in both goats and sheep. Babesia sp. is identified from extracted DNA of Haemophysalis sp. tick. Finally, the random sequencing of isolates from Babesia sp., Anaplasma sp. and Theileria sp. revealed Babesia ovis, Anaplasma bovis, Anaplasma phagocytophilum and Theileria lewenshuni from goat and sheep and phylogenetic analysis prove the transmission of Babesia ovis though Haemophysalis sp. tick. Further investigation is necessary for a structured surveillance to investigate more variances of them to formulate effective control measures.