Abstract:
An abattoir survey was conducted on 248 sheep slaughtered at El-obied abattoir, North Kordofan State, Sudan, during the period extended from April to August 2013. The objective was to estimate the prevalence of hydatid cysts in sheep and to investigate risk factors associated with the disease. Routine meat inspection procedure was employed to detect the presence of hydatid cysts in muscles and visceral organs (liver, lung, heart and peritoneum).Examined sheep originated from six localities: Omsimima, Elnihood, Bara, Elkhwoie, Shikan, and Gibash. The overall prevalence was 1.6% . The prevalence of hydatid cysts infection according to age of sheep was 3.2% in animals more than one years and 0.6% in animals less or equal to one year. The distribution of the hydatid cysts according to the area (source) of sheep was 2.08% in Omsimima, 2.6% in Elnihood, 0% in Bara, 0% in Elkhowei, 0% in Gibash and 0% in Shikan. As for body condition the prevalence was 1.9% in good body condition and 0.0% in poor body condition. Regarding distribution by sex, the prevalence of hydatid cysts was 1.5% in male and 1.6% in female. The prevalence of hydatidosis in ecotype of animals was 2.6% in Kabashi ecotype ,0.7% in Hamary ecotype , 2.9% in Garag ecotype and 3.2% in Shorany ecotype. The results of the univariate analysis by using the Chi-square for the following potential risk factors were : ecotype (P-value = 0.59), age of animal (p-value = 0.18), origin of animal (P-value = 0.86), body condition (p-value = 0.36), sex (p-value = 0.94), . The age of animal was found to be significantly associated with hydatidosis (p-value =0.118).
Using multivariate analysis to determine possible significant association between hydatidosis and potential risk factors, the result showed that there was no significant association with any of the investigated risk factors.
Our study showed that the liver was the most infected organ (3 cyst), while one cyst was found in the thigh muscle. No cyst was found in the lung, heart or peritonieum . Microscopic examination of the 4 cysts (found in 4 affected animals) revealed that, one cyst was sterile, three cysts were fertile.
