Cross Sectional Epidemiological Investigation on the Prevalence of Gastrointestinal Parasites of Small Ruminants in Sullah Upazilla of Sunamgonj District, Bangladesh

| A cross-sectional epidemiological investigation was conducted from February 2014 to July 2014 with the objectives of estimating the prevalence of gastrointestinal parasites of small ruminants in Sullah Upazilla of Sunamgonj District, Bangladesh. The study population was comprised of 400 small ruminants (goat and sheep). The whole study area was divided into ten sub groups to facilitate the collection of fecal sample. From each area, 40 samples were collected irrespective of animal species. All fecal samples were collected from 200 goat and 200 sheep. In the laboratory, coprologically, the samples were subjected to sedimentation, floatation, Modified McMaster techniques. The overall prevalence for GIT parasitic infection in goat and sheep found 45.00% and 40.00%, respectively. The prevalence of various types of parasites in sheep and goats were: Fasciola gigantica (46.67%), Paramphistomum cervi (50%), Haemonchus contortus (35.56%), Moniezia sp. (35.56%), Trichuris sp. (13.33%), Strongyloides sp. (11.11%) and Eimeria sp. (37.78%) of goat and Fasciola gigantica (37.50%), Paramphistomum cervi (63.75%), Haemonchus contortus (20.00%), Moniezia sp. (30.00%), Trichuris sp. (23.75%) and Eimeria sp. (43.75%) of sheep (P<0.05). The study shows various species of helminths suggesting the ambient condition and the nature of sheep and goat rearing system are very favourable for the transmission and existence of the parasite species. Therefore, further broad aspect studies are essential to estimate the impact of gastrointestinal helminths infection on the rural small ruminants of Bangladesh.


INTRODUCTION
G astro intestinal parasites like helminths and protozoan affect the health of the small ruminants like sheep and goats. When heavy infections occur those parasites drastically decrease the economic feedback from the small ruminants animal like milk yield reduction in goat and sheep which also interrupt with the digestion of essential macro minerals like calcium and vitamins for the milk production in the mammary glands (Murthy and Rao 2014). Small ruminants under intensive and extensive production systems are extremely susceptible to the effects of wide range of helminths (Abede and Esayas, 2001). The fleece quality even production is reduced in sheep because of deficiency in required amino acids which is essential for the growth of the wool and grease fleece. Most parasitic helminths infect their host respectively via oral route and live either at the mucosal surface or gastro intestinal tract of the host. The problem is greater in tropical analysed as risk factors countries with good rainfall (Mulcahy et al., 2004). For checking those types of parasitic problems the important function of the veterinarians is to become more aware

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The Journal of Advances in Parasitology October 2015 | Volume 2 | Issue 4 | Page 101 about the commonly occurred gastrointestinal parasites in their geographical locations. Through proper diagnosis and treatment the losses of the poor farmers will be mollify those who are directly dependent on the livestock for their existence. Regarding the above proceedings the occurrence study was planned to investigate the gastro intestinal parasites of small ruminants (sheep and goat) belonging to Sullha region, Sunamgonj district, Bangladesh. Sullah the haour area has ample of livestock resources and farmers to rear sheep and goats for their livelihood.

ethiCal issue
Before sampling consent was obtained from the animal owners participating in the study and cautions were taken to ensure minimum stress to the animal during sample collection.

site profile and GeoGraphiCal inforMation
The study was conducted in haour basin of Sullah  Figure 1).

study period and population
The study was conducted from February 2014 to July 2014 in haour basin of Sullah Upazilla of Sunamgonj district, Bangladesh. The whole Upazilla area was divided into ten sub groups to facilitate the collection of fecal sample. From each area 40 samples were collected irrespective of animal species. The study population was composed of small ruminants.

saMple size CalCulation
The sample size was calculated by using the formula for estimating prevalence according to (Houel H, 2004).
Where n = required sample size, p exp = expected prevalence of the disease, d = allowable error of 5 %, and confidence level 95 %.
On the basis of information obtained through literature review the assumed prevalence of infection considered as 50% for ruminants and the population size was considered as 384. We wanted to be 95% sure to detect the infection if it present. Thus therefore we considered 400 small ruminants.

parasitoloGiCal exaMination
The representative fresh fecal samples were collected per rectum from individual animals in dry and clean polythene bags and were brought to the laboratory after affixing a proper identification label. In the laboratory the samples were subjected to sedimentation, floatation, Modified McMaster techniques based on (Soulsby, 1982) and the eggs were identified by the techniques described (Saleque, 1999).

statistiCal analysis
Statistical analysis was performed by Logistic Regression procedure using SAS 9.2 and the level of significance was considered as (P<0.05) and win episcope for sample size detection.

RESULTS
Sheep and goats harbour a variety of gastrointestinal tract (GIT) parasites. The rates of parasitic infestations of small ruminants vary based on their animal species and regarding sex (Figure 2 and 3).
The animal examined in this study both male and female of goat and sheep. The proportion of examined are (55.00%) male and (45.00%) female for goat and (57.00%) male and (43.00%) female for sheep respectively (Table 1).

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The  The overall prevalence for GIT parasitic infection in goat and sheep found during the study 45.00% and 40.00% respectively (Table 2).

DISCUSSION
Our study for the first time reported the prevalence of gastrointestinal helminths infection in small ruminants of very remote areas of Sunamgonj District of Bangladesh. We had found that the rural goat and sheep are heavily infected by helminths which will cause malevolent impact on the health and productivity of small ruminants.
In the present study, the highest prevalence of helminths was recorded in goats. The rate of helminths infection in goat varies from one part of the world to another. A variety of factors such as host age, sex and breeding status, grazing habits, the level of education and economic capacity of farmers, the standard of management and anthelmintic used can influence the prevalence of helminths (Asanji and Williams, 1987;Gulland and Fox, 1992).
The various species of endo-parasites recovered during present investigation have been reported by various researchers in different parts of the world (Pedreira et al., 2006;Nwosu et al., 2007;Raza et al., 2007). The prevalence studied in this area are correlated with the gastrointestinal parasites infection found elsewhere conducted by (Raza et al., 2007).
In this study the prevalence of Haemonchus sp. is 35.56% in goat and in sheep Haemonchus sp. 20.00% which is very similar to the study of gastrointestinal parasites of Ethiopia Lashari et al., 2015). The occurrence of Moniezia sp. is 35.56% that is very coherent to infection found in southern Ethiopia (Aragaw and Gebreegziabher, 2014) whereas prevalence rate of Eimeria sp. in present study is 44.75% similar to the study of Eimeria found in Pakintan (Kaur and Kaur 2008;Gadahi et al., 2009;Daniel et al., 2014).
The prevalence of Strongyloides sp. in this study is 11.11% shows relatively close to the study found in India (Yadav et al., 2005;Bhat et al., 2014;Singh et al., 2014), prevalence rate of Trichuris sp. found 13.33% in my study similar to prevalence found in West Harerghe Zone (Kaur andKaur 2008, Tariq et al., 2008;Daniel et al., 2014). The rate of Fasciola infection is 37.50% which close to infection found by (Daniel et al., 2014). The prevalence of Fasciola sp., and Paramphistomum sp. in the present study was higher than the report of (Haque et al., 2011). The reason could be due to the agro-climatic conditions in Sunamgonj region with the presence of haour area near water bodies and abundant intermediate hosts during the rainy season. Yadav et al. (2005) reported that the prevalence of Amphistomes (26.56 %) were predominant followed by Stron

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The Journal of Advances in Parasitology October 2015 | Volume 2 | Issue 4 | Page 103

liMitation and strenGth of the study
In this study we were only able to do microscopic examination of stool because of lack most sophisticated resources such as PCR which might under estimate the true prevalence of infection. Moreover, the number of goat faeces examined was comparatively similar to sheep as because most of the farmers are interested to rear both goat and sheep due to production and benefit purposes. This produced result privileges us to envisage the overall parasitic infections that affect sheep and goats in most of the rural areas in Bangladesh.

CONCLUSION
The conducted study revealed various species of helminths infection in goat and sheep which suggest that the ambient condition and the nature of sheep and goat rearing system are very favorable for the transmission and existence of the parasite species in rural areas of Bangladesh. This condition of high worm loads can make the animal more prone to other organismal infection like bacterial and viral infection as well as the other domestic animals which acts as the vector of parasitic diseases. Therefore, further broad aspect studies are essential to estimate the impact of gastrointestinal helminths infection on the rural small ruminants in rural areas of Bangladesh.