Epidemiology of bovine fascioliasis in the Nile Delta region of Egypt: Its prevalence, evaluation of risk factors, and its economic significance

Vet World Vol.10 October-2017 Article-13

Research Article

Veterinary World, 10(10): 1241-1249

https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2017.1241-1249

Abdelgawad S. El-Tahawy¹, Eman K. Bazh², and Reda E. Khalafalla³

1. Department of Animal Husbandry and Wealth Development, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Damanhour University, Egypt.
2. Department of Pathology and Parasitology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Damanhour University, Egypt.
3. Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Kafrelsheikh University, Kafr El-Sheikh, Egypt.

Background and Aim: This study focuses on the risk factors associated with the prevalence of Fasciola affecting cattle population in three provinces belonging to the Nile Delta of Egypt and to estimate the economic losses as a result of fascioliasis.

Materials and Methods: From January 2015 to end of December 2015, records of 21 farms (4976 cattle) were analyzed to screen the prevalence of fascioliasis among cattle farms, to identify its associated risk factors and its economic impacts on Nile Delta region of Egypt.

Results: The overall prevalence of fascioliasis in the Nile Delta region of Egypt was 9.77%. The prevalence of fascioliasis was found to be statistically significantly associated with age, sex, breed, and type of farms. The highest prevalence was observed in <2 age group (10.91%), and the lowest was >3 age groups (8.35%). In terms of body condition scores, cattle with medium and poor conditions were associated with fascioliasis more than those with good body condition. Besides, cattle raised in organic farms were associated with lower risk of fascioliasis than those in conventional farms. The prevalence of fascioliasis was noted more prominent in districts with moderate temperatures and with relative humidity (>60%). The annual overall costs for fascioliasis were estimated to be 221.2 USD/cow due to the significant reduction in body weight, reduction in milk production, and the treatment costs for fascioliasis.

Conclusion: The results provided could be helpful for improving the control and preventive strategies. Keywords: cattle, Egypt, fascioliasis, Nile Delta, prevalence, risk factors.

Keywords: cattle, Egypt, fascioliasis, Nile Delta, prevalence, risk factors.

How to cite this article: El-Tahawy AS, Bazh EK, Khalafalla RE (2017) Epidemiology of bovine fascioliasis in the Nile Delta region of Egypt: Its prevalence, evaluation of risk factors, and its economic significance, Veterinary World, 10(10): 1241-1249.

Received: 17-05-2017 Accepted: 19-09-2017 Published online: 18-10-2017

Corresponding author: Reda E. Khalafalla E-mail: redabast@hotmail.de

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2017.1241-1249

Copyright: El-Tahawy, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.