Abstract:
An abattoir survey was conducted on 192 sheep slaughtered at Elkadaro abattoir in Khartoum, Sudan, during the survey period from March to April 2015. 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 the hydatid cysts in visceral organs (liver, lung and peritoneum). Selected sheep were originated from three states: Khartoum, Blue Nile and Elgedarif. The overall prevalence of hydatid cysts was 3.1%. The distribution of hydatid cysts infection according to age of sheep was: 0% in young animals < 2 year and 6.7% in old animals ≥ 2 years. The distribution of hydatid cyst infection according to the area (origin) of sheep was: 9.6% in Blue Nile, 0% in Khartoum and 1.1% in Elgedarif. For body score, the prevalence was: 1.7% in animals in good body score and 5.5% in animals in poor body score. Regarding distribution by sex, the prevalence of hydatid cyst was: 2.45% in female and 6.9% in male.
Using the Chi-square for analysis, this study found significant association between hydatidosis in sheep and each of the following risk factors: age of animal (p – value = 0.007). origin of animal (p – value = 0.007) and location of cyst (p-value =.044). Other risk factors investigated were not found significant.
Our study showed that liver was the most infected organs, 45.5% were in liver only, 27.3% were in lung only, 18.2% of cyst infected both liver and lung together (mixed infection) and 9% were in muscle
Microscopic examination of the 11 cysts revealed that 8(72.7%) were fertile cysts, 2 (18.3%) were sterile cysts and 1 (9%) were calcified cysts. Within fertile cysts, 6 (75%) cysts were viable and 2 (25%) cysts were not viable . Regarding the volume of cysts 5 (45.5%) of cysts were 2 – 3 ml, 4 (.36.3%) were <2 ml and 2 (18.2%) were > 3 ml.
