Oestrus ovis in Ecuador: Importance in the Andean sheep farming

Vet World Vol.12 April-2019 Article-6

Research Article

Veterinary World, 12(4): 522-526

https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2019.522-526

Gabriela Ortega-Munoz¹, Nivia Luzuriaga-Neira^1,2, Richard Salazar-Silva¹, and Richar Rodriguez-Hidalgo^1,3

1. Department of Parasitology , Medicine, Veterinary and Zootechnic Faculty, Central University of Ecuador, EC170521, Quito, Ecuador.
2. Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, Central University of Ecuador, EC170521, Quito, Ecuador.
3. Parasitology Unit, Public Health and Zoonosis Research Institute, Central University of Ecuador EC170521, Quito, Ecuador.

Background and Aim: This study aimed to determine the prevalence of Oestrus ovis in sheep meant for meat commercialization in the main slaughterhouse of the country.

Materials and Methods: Between October 2015 and December 2015, we assessed the occurrence of Oestrus myiasis in the main slaughterhouse localized in Quito. In total, 80 sheep heads were randomly inspected and necropsied. Larvae were removed from nasal cavities and paranasal sinuses and cleaned. ANOVA (generalized linear model) was used to estimate the relationship between sex, age, and place of origin and presence or absence of parasite larvae.

Results: Morphological identification confirmed that 19% (15/80) of the examined animals were positive for Oestrus ovis; from the positive cases, 21% were young animals <12 months old. We found that statistical differences by animal sex, males, were most infested 93% (14/15) than females 7% (1/15). Larvae's L2 were more abundant than other stages (62 of the total 149). 14 of the infested animals were from the Andean places at > 2500 meters above sea level (m.a.s.l.), and only one case from the coastal region at 250 m.a.s.l. with tropical environmental conditions.

Conclusion: Our results showed evidence of the presence of myiasis caused by O. ovis in Andean and coastal places in Ecuador and its adaptation to different environmental conditions from that reported previously in temperate regions from Europe and Africa. Keywords: Ecuador, Ecuadorian highlands, oestrosis, Oestrus ovis, sheep.

Keywords: Ecuador, Ecuadorian highlands, oestrosis, Oestrus ovis, sheep.

How to cite this article: Ortega-Munoz G, Luzuriaga-Neira N, Salazar-Silva R, Rodriguez-Hidalgo R (2019) Oestrus ovis in Ecuador: Importance in the Andean sheep farming, Veterinary World, 12(4): 522-526.

Received: 05-11-2018 Accepted: 25-02-2019 Published online: 14-04-2019

Corresponding author: Richar Rodriguez-Hidalgo E-mail: rrodriguez@uce.edu.ec

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2019.522-526

Copyright: Ortega-Munoz, 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.