Prevalence and risk factors of gastrointestinal parasites in sheep from Ubaté, Cundinamarca, Colombia

Abstract

Sheep production is considered an important sector of meat supply for human consumption and contributes to development of the rural areas. Gastrointestinal infection in sheep include helminthic and coccidial infections and in order to establishing preventive measures against parasites in flocks, an understanding of its epidemiology is required. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of helminthic and coccidial infections in sheep from Ubaté - Colombia by Ritchie concentration method and to identify the risk factors (sex, feeding, age, physiological state and deworming condition) associated with infection. 400 fecal samples were collected using a convenience sampling method. Risk factors were analyzed by logistic regression analysis. Risk was expressed as an odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval. Descriptive epidemiology and risk factors were performed using EpiInfo software. The overall prevalence was 78.1%. The different families observed were Dictyocaulidae (43.5%), Trichostrongylidae (32.7%), Ascaridae (2.8%), Trichuridae (3%), Chabertiidae (39.7%), Fasciolidae (0.4%), Eimeriidae (93.2%) and Taeniidae 0.2%. Silage feeding constitute a risk factor for the acquisition of coccidian (p: 0.03). It is concluded that the prevalence of helminthic and coccidial infections in Ubaté municipality is high.

Keywords

• prevalence, risk factors, sheep, trichostrongylids, eimeriidae.