Prevalence of Babesiosis in Cattle and Goats at Zaria Abattoir, Nigeria

Babesiosis is a haemolytic disease caused by intraerythrocytic protozoan of the genus babesia. It is a disease of small and large ruminants, characterized by fever(40-420C) which may be sudden in onset. The animals become listless, anorexic, anaemic and jaundice. moderate to high morbidity and mortality has been observed. This is a cross-sectional study designed to determine the prevalence of babesiosis in cattle and goats slaughtered in Zaria abattoir. A paired blood samples were collected from the jugular vein of the animals at slaughter in bottles containing ethylenediaminetetra acetic acid (EDTA). Of the 223 animals sampled at Zaria abattoir, 168 were cattle and 55 goats. A total of 16 cattle were found to be infected with Babesia bigemina, representing 9.5%, while in the goats none were infected with Babesia sp. giving a zero percent prevalence. Out of the 168 cattle sampled, 96 were males in which 13/96 (13.5%) were positive for Babesia bigemina and of the 72 females sampled, 3/72 (4.17%) were positive for B. bigemina. The mean PCV of males and female infected were 28.69% and 28.67% respectively. Mixed infections with other blood parasites were also observed, Anaplasma marginale 58/168 (34.5%), Theileria mutans 52/168 (30.6%) and Trypanosoma vivax 3/168 (1.8%) in cattle, and in goats Anaplasma ovis 25/55(45.5%) and Theileria ovis 18/55 (32.7%). The overall prevalence of 9.5% of babesiosis in cattle was observed in this study and while in goats no babesia parasite was recorded.