Abstract:
An abattoir survey was conducted on 332 sheep slaughtered at El-hag Yousif abattoir, East Nile Khartoum State, Sudan, during the period extended from December 2014 to February 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 hydatid cysts in visceral organs (liver, lung, heart and spleen).Examined sheep originated from three areas: Buttana, East Nile, and White Nile. The overall prevalence was 3% . The prevalence of hydatid cysts infection according to age of sheep was 3.7% in animals equal and more than one years and 2.11% in animals less than one year. The distribution of the hydatid cysts according to the area (source) of sheep was 2.4% in Buttana, 2.19% in East Nile, and 5.6% in White Nile. As for body condition the prevalence was 3.3% in good body condition and 0.0% in poor body condition. The prevalence of hydatidosis in ecotype of animals was 2.3% in Baldy ecotype ,5.7% in Hamary ecotype , 2.4% in Dubasy ecotype and 5% in Kabashy ecotype. The results of the univariate analysis by using the Chi-square for the following potential risk factors were : ecotype (P-value = 0.578), age of animal (p-value = 0.407), origin of animal (P-value = 0.359), body condition (p-value = 0.321), grazing (p-value =0.100),and present of dog (p-value =0.343) . The grazing of animal was found to be significantly associated with hydatidosis (p-value =0.1).
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 (6 cysts), while two cysts was found in the lung, and two cyst was found in the lung and liver. No cyst was found in heart or spleen . Microscopic examination of the 12 cysts (found in 10 affected animals) revealed that, eight cysts was sterile, two cysts were fertile.
