Study of Prevalence and Risk Factors of Sheep Hydatidosis in Khartoum state – Sudan

Abstract

This study was conducted on 332 sheep slaughtered at Al-Baraka Modern abattoir, West Omdurman Khartoum State, Sudan, during the period extended from March to April 2019. the objective was to estimate the prevalence of hydatid cyst in sheep and to investigate risk factors associated with the disease. Routine meat inspection procedure was employed to detect the prevalence of hydatid cyst in visceral organs (liver, lung, heart and spleen). Examined sheep originated from three areas: North Kordofan, Omdurman and Algadarif. The overall prevalence was 4.5%. The prevalence of hydatid cyst infection according to age of sheep was 5.64% in old animals and 2.91% in young animals. The distribution of the hydatid cyst according to the area(source) of sheep was 5% in North Kordofan , 5.4% in Omdurman and 2.5% in Algadarif. As for body condition the prevalence was 4% in good body condition and 9.8% in poor body condition . The prevalence of hydatidosis ecotype of animals was 4.41% in Hamary , 6.25% in Balady ecotype and 3.44% in Kabashy ecotype. The prevalence of hydatid cysts according to sex of sheep was 3.5% in female and 5.2% in male . The results of the univariate analysis by using the Chi-square for the following potential risk factors were: age (p-value = 0.240) , sex of animal (p-value = 0.436) , ecotype (p-value = 0.712) , origin of animal (p-value = 0.590) , body condition (p-value = 0.146) , grazing (p-value = 0.006) and present of dog (p-value = 0.210) . The grazing of animal was found to be significantaly associated with hydatidosis (p-value = 0.006) . 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. The liver was the most infected organ(9 cysts), while four cyst was found in lung and two cyst was found in muscle. No cyst was found in heart or spleen . Microscopic examination of the 15 cysts (found in 15 affected animals) revealed that, twelve cyst were sterile, three cyst were fertile.