Abstract:
An abattoir survey was conducted on 192 sheep slaughtered
at Al-Jamarek abattoir and Alriad abattoir, West Darfur State,
Sudan, during the period September to December 2014. The
objective of the survey was to estimate the prevalence of hydatid
cysts in sheep and to investigate the risk factors associated with the
disease. Routine meat inspection procedures were employed to
detect the presence of hydatid cysts in visceral organs (liver, lung,
heart and peritoneum).
The sheep selected for this study originated from six localities:
Elgeniena, Kerenik, Serba, Jabal Moon, Baida, and Foro Baranga.
The overall prevalence was 8.9%. The prevalence of hydatid cysts
infection according to abattoir was 10% in Alriad abattoir and
7.6% in Aljamarek abattoir. The prevalence of hydatid cysts
infection according to age of sheep was 4.25% in young animals
and 12.1% in old animals. Regarding distribution by sex, the
prevalence of hydatid cysts was 8.7% in male and 9.3% in female
sheep. Regarding distribution by breed, the prevalence of
hydatidosis was 12.5% in Hamary breed and 8.1 in Sahrawi breed.
Regarding distribution by body condition, the prevalence of
hydatidosis was 10.4% in sheep with good body condition and
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2.6% in sheep with poor body condition. The distribution of the
hydatid cysts according to the area (source) of sheep was (15%) in
Elgeniena, (13.5%) in Foro Baranga, (9.3%) in Baida, (8.5%) in
Kereinik, (2.8%) in Serba and (0.0%) in Jabal Moon. Regarding
distribution by presence of concurrent abnormality, the prevalence
of hydatidosis was 33.3% in anemic sheep, 11.8% in sheep visceral
hemorrhages and 8.1% in animals that had no concurrent
abnormality.
The results showed that age is significantly associated with
hydatidosis (p- value =0.02).
The current study showed that the liver was the most infected
organ (14 cysts), while two cysts were found in both liver and
lungs, and one cyst was found in the lung. No cyst was found in
the thigh, heart or peritoneum. Microscopic examination of the 17
cysts (found in 17 affected animals) revealed that, 9 cysts were
sterile, 5 cysts were fertile and 3cysts were calcified.
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