COLLAGE OF VETERNARY MEDICINE

STUDY ON PREVALENCE OF OVINE HAEMONCOSIS AND ASSOCIATED RISK

FACTOR IN KUTABER WOREDA

DESSIE, ETHIOPIA

A RESEARCH PROPOSAL

BY:

HALLID AMBAYE

ADVIZER

DR: SHIMELES ABEGAZ

MARCH 2015

DESSIE, ETHIOPIA
TABLES OF CONTENTS

Contents

1. INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………..
2. LITRATURE REVIEW…………………………………………………….
2.1. Prevalence and Associated Risk Factor of Ovine Haemoncosis………..
2.2. Haemoncosis………………………………………………………….
2.2.1. Etiology……………………………………………………..
2.2.2. Morphology………………………………………………………..
2.2.3. Life cycle and Epidemiology…………………………………..
2.2.4. Pathogenesis and Clinical Finding……………………………….
2.2.5. Diagnosis and Teartment…………………………………….
2.2.6. Preventions and Control…………………………………………………

3. MATERIALS AND METHODS…………………………………………………

3.1. Description of the study area……………………………………………

3.2. Study population……………………………………………………..

3.3. Study design……………………………………………

3.4. Sample size determination and sampling method………………………

3.5. Fecal Samples Collection and Examination…………………..

3.6. Data Management and Analysis ………………………………

4. WORK PLAN………………………………………………………………………..
1. Introduction

Ethiopia has the largest livestock and draft animal population in the African continent which is
approximately 56,706,389 cattle, 29, 332, 382 sheep, 29, 112, 963 goat, 2, 033, 115 horses, 400,
329 mules, 7, 428, 037 donkeys, 1, 164, 106 camels and 56, 866, 719 chickens [CSA,2014].
Small ruminants are kept for various purposes. Their role for income generation, food supply
(meat and milk), and financial security for the rural poor population is documented [FAO, 2004].
These animals also provide 46 % of the value of national meat production and 58 % of the value
of hide and skin production and play an integral part in the production systems of the country
[Muhamed, 2013].

In developing countries, the livestock sector is considered the backbone of the economy, and the
small ruminants, including ovine, make its major segment (FAOSTAT 2018). Sheep are reared
in rural areas for sale in the open market as a valuable source of organic meat throughout the
year. Farmers, dealers, and the state also generate handsome revenue through its trading as
sacrificial food animals at the occasion of annual religious festivals in Muslim countries. The
demand is rapidly multiplying because of fast growth in population, increased buying power of
people, and export opportunities (Rehman et al., 2017; Bai et al., 2020).

Although sheep are potential source of income for the daily life and livelihoods of lots of local
community in Ethiopia, productivity is constrained by several factors from which disease being
the most important. Haemonchosis caused by Haemonchus contorts is one of the major parasitic
infections causing tremendous economic losses to small ruminant productivity in Ethiopia
[Hasen et al., 1990,]. The etiologic agent H. contortus is a blood sucking nematode parasite,
primarily occurring in the abomasum of small ruminants, notably sheep and goats. This
nematode is also called as the barber pole worm because of its red and white striped appearance
in the female. The female is capable of producing over 5, 000 eggs a day, which are passed
through the feces onto the pasture [Baht et al., 2011].

Where flocks of all age groups are taken out during the day for grazing in harvested fields, along
the roadside, canal banks, and foothills. Water available in stagnant reservoirs and irrigation
channels is offered for drinking. Night housing consists of mud-erected sheds and paddocks.
This system coupled with a high temperature-humidity index naturally exposes the animals to
infestation with several gastrointestinal parasites (Swarnkar and Singh 2020; Vohra et al.,2020)

Several studies and research works have been carried out on H. contortus infection in sheep
covering various aspects of its prevalence, life cycle, pathogenesis, clinical symptoms, diagnostic
methods, host immunity, treatment, control measures, and drug resistance. However, even today,
this nematode remains an impediment in the way of the desired production in sheep farming. H.
contortus is a nematode parasite of family Trichostrongylidae later classified as Haemonchidae
(Palevich et al., 2019).

Currently, control strategies against haemonchosis are mainly based on the application of
anthelmintic drugs developed in the second half of the twentieth century. However, the
widespread use of such drugs over the past few decades has resulted in increasing resistance in
different parasitic worms, becoming an emerging issue worldwide (Kplan et al.,2012) .The rapid
growth in anthelmintic resistance in H. contortus reported in sheep farms globally has
dramatically increased the need for alternative and sustainable control strategies (Charlier et
al .,2022 ).

Vaccination is considered a sustainable and efficient option to control infectious diseases

including parasitoses. However, developing safe and efficient vaccines against multicellular
parasitic worms requires a deep understanding of the biology of both parasite and hosts and of
the biochemical properties of parasite-derived molecules, and needs appropriate tools to assess
host immune responses in efficacy studies in natural host species, which makes the task rather
challenging. As a result, and in contrast to available vaccines against viral and bacterial
pathogens, only a handful vaccines against helminth infections are available for livestock,
whereas none is currently available for human use [Meeusin et al., 2007]. Given the biological
nature of H. contortus, i.e., with a large part of the population not being in touch with the host
immune system and with a high reproductive capacity, the major goal of developing anti-
Haemonchus vaccines is to decrease worm burden in host animals, rather than eradicating the
parasite. Hence, vaccination of sheep should not only prevent severe diseases caused H.
contortus, but also reduce transmission via contaminated pastures, which occurs frequently
because of the high amounts of eggs shed by infected individuals [Adduci et al.,2022].
Previously there was few documented data regarding to the prevalence of the haemonchosis in
small ruminants regardless of the high populations of sheep and goats in the study area. Even
though numerous epidemiological studies have been conducted throughout the world to arrive at
the detailed information on the gastrointestinal parasites of livestock but there are scanty
references are available on epidemiology and prevalence of intestinal helminthes of sheep. [Odoi
et al., 2007].

Therefore this study will targeted to fill the information gap in the study area with the following
objectives.

 To estimate the current prevalence of ovine haemoncosis infection in the study areas.
 To determine the risk factor associated with Haemoncos contortus infection.
2. LITRATURE REVIEW

2.1 hamonicosis

H. contortus is a nematode parasite of family Trichostrongylidae later classified as

Haemonchidae (Palevich et al,. 2019). The adult parasite has an anteriorly tapering cylindrical
body (Widiarso et al., 2018). A small oral cavity is equipped with a prominent lancet type tooth
on the dorsal side for sucking capillary blood from the host stomach wall (Sambodo et al., 2018;
Widiarso et al.,,2018). The organism is whitish yellow in colour; however, ingested blood gives
it a reddish appearance. The male bears a lobulated genital bursa at the tail end, a gubernaculum,
and a pair of needle-like spicules for mating (Kuchai et al., 2012; El-Ashram and Suo 2017;
Melnychuk 2019). Female has vulvular pouches towards posterior end covered with a prominent
linguiform, smooth, or knobbed process (Irfan-ur-Rauf et al., 2014; Nahar et al., 2019). The
blood-filled intestine in the female with the white uterus, winding around, gives the shape of a
“barber’s pole”, the popular name used for this parasite (Saminathan et al., 2015) (Fig. 1). The
average length of the male is 10–20 mm and that of the female is 18–30 mm (Roeber et
al. ,2013a). The eggs at an average are 70–79 μ × 45–49 μ in size (Mahmood et al. 2019).
Genetic variation has given rise to so many strains of H. contortus (Yin et al., 2016; Sargison et
al., 2019).

Prevalence

As per the latest information available, H. contortus originated from sub-Sahara, Africa, in wild
ungulates and then evolved to spread across the globe through the movement of host animals and
human intervention (Gilleard and Redman 2016; Sallé et al. 2019). All classes of ruminants are
susceptible; however, aggressive distribution has been noticed in sheep and goat population (Yin
et al. 2016). The parasite finds highly favourable warm and wet conditions in tropical and sub-
tropical countries (O’Connor et al. 2006); however, over the years, prevalence has also been
reported from temperate regions due to climatic changes (Emery et al. 2016; Rose et al. 2016).
Incidence may vary with season, area, age, sex, breed, and body condition; however, findings of
such studies are not consistent. The average larval establishment rate has been reported to be
0.24 ± 0.02 (Saccareau et al. 2017). Random examination of abomasums from abattoirs in
Ethiopia (Tesfaheywet and Murga 2019) and faecal egg count (FEC) from the farms in Rwanda
(Mushonga et al. 2018) revealed over 80% prevalence in sheep.

Go to:

Life cycle

H. contortus passes through six stages of life which include egg, four larval stages, and the adult
(El-Ashram and Suo 2017) (Fig. 2). Typical to its family, the female parasite lays numerous eggs
with an average (±SE) of 1295.9 ± 280.4 per day which are passed through faeces to pastures
(Saccareau et al. 2017). The eggs may die or develop to free-living larval 1st stage (L 1), 2nd
stage (L2), and infective stage (L3) within 1–7 (Schwarz et al. 2013) days. The hatchability of
eggs and development to infective larvae depend upon the availability of suitable environmental
conditions (temperature range of 15–37 °C and relative humidity of 85–100%) in faecal pellets
and herbage (O’Connor et al. 2006). Stage L3 is ingested by the host where it undergoes
ensheathment in the rumen and takes 2–3 weeks to develop into parasitic stage L4. After two
moultings and just before the final moult, immature adult L 5 erupts which develops a lancet to
penetrate the mucosal vessels for sucking blood. The abomasum is the predilection site where the
adult worms move freely. The parasite may also undergo arrested inactive phase of development
in the host animal during winter called hypobiosis (Zajac and Garza 2020).

Pathogenesis and symptoms

Degree of the establishment of H. contortus and consequent sickness depend upon the number of
infective larvae ingested, age (Saccareau et al. 2017), immunity level, and nutritional status of
the host. Major pathogenic damage occurs due to the sucking of blood by the free-living
parasites and eruption of ulcerative lesions in the abomasal mucosa leading to digestive
syndrome and anaemic disorders (Besier et al. 2016b). The infected sheep may lose up to 30 μL
of blood every day due to one parasite and even death in the pre-patent period (Emery et al.
2016). Loss of blood which is either ingested or let oozed out from the mucosal lesion to faeces
leads to anaemia, which appears 10–12 days after getting infected (Roeber et al. 2013b), and a
fall in packed cell volume (PCV) (Storey et al. 2017; Ferreira et al. 2019) detectable even at 4th
day. The PCV value further drops by 3–6 weeks due to increased blood loss by the accelerated
activity of parasites and bleeding from haemorrhagic gastritis lesions. A concurrent reduction in
the concentration of haemoglobin and plasma protein is also observed (Swarnkar and Singh
2018). Extensive damage to abomasal mucosa affects the passage rate of ingesta, produces pain
and inflammatory cytokines, and changes in gastric secretions as well as the level of
gastrointestinal hormones in plasma which lead to prolonged loss of appetite (Angulo-Cubillán et
al. 2007). Due to raised pH of the abomasum, rumen microbes do not get inactivated and lysed
resulting in the non-availability of amino acids. Physical and chemical damage caused by the
parasite induces the inflammatory response in the gastric tissues leading to a collection of
numerous neutrophils, lymphocytes, and eosinophils which further aggravate the situation (Alam
et al. 2020). Clinically haemonchosis can be sub-divided into hyper-acute, acute, and chronic
forms. In a hyper-acute case, sudden death is the only sign. Acute form involves severe anaemia,
lethargy, weakness, increased respiratory and heart rate, dark mushy faeces, loss of wool, pale to
white conjunctiva, ascites, and sub-mandibular and cervical oedema. Quite recently fatal
outbreaks of haemonchosis in lambs have been reported (Paul et al. 2020). Chronic disease is
characterized by anorexia, loss of weight, agalactia, pallor of the conjunctiva, and mucosa
(Besier et al. 2016b; Iliev et al. 2017)

Diagnosis

Diagnosis of haemonchosis can be made through the clinical picture, FAfa MAlan CHArt
(FAMACHA), morphological identification of eggs and parasite, molecular techniques,
haematology, immunological procedures, and post-mortem findings (Besier et al. 2016a;
Zarlenga et al. 2016). FAMACHA is a popular method in tropical and sub-tropical countries
which involves visual assessment of anaemia through watching colour of conjunctiva on a score
of 1–5, 1 and 2 (red or pink) being normal, 3 (light pink) doubtful, and 4 and 5 (pale) being
anaemic (Ferreira et al. 2019). FAMACHA scores 4 and 5 with blood PCV value ≤ 15% have
been found highly sensitive, whereas scores 3–5 with PCV value ≤ 18% have been found highly
sensitive for the diagnosis of haemonchosis in sheep (Ferreira et al. 2019); however, variation
due to breed has been reported (Alam et al. 2020).
Treatment

There are various strategies for the treatment of H. contortus on herd level. One common
practice is periodical deworming of all the flocks with anthelmintic drugs. This approach is
costly, offers the least opportunity for the development of immune response in the growing flock,
and also potentiates the risk of parasite resistance. An alternate approach is targeted treatment
(TT) where a targeted flock is treated with anthelmintics and others are allowed to graze on
infected pastures. Another regime with a reduced cost of treatment is targeted selective treatment
(TST) in which only selected animals are treated leaving remaining flock as such presumably
being healthy or bearing less resistant worms, to have epidemiological benefits (Kenyon and
Jackson 2012; Calvete et al. 2020). Last two strategies are labour intensive and based on
inspection of individual animals, by the skilled technicians for anaemia score (FAMACHA),
body condition score (BCS) (Cornelius et al. 2014), faecal egg count, or live weight gain
measurement (Greer et al. 2009; Kenyon and Jackson 2012). Anthelmintics are the most
commonly used drugs for the treatment of H. contortus throughout the world which still have
adequate efficacy (Calvete et al. 2020), but the need for the choice of an effective anthelmintic to
prevent the development of resistance cannot be overemphasized. Broad-spectrum substances
like benzimidazoles (albendazole), imidazothiazole, and macro-cyclic lactones (ivermectin) have
been known to create resistant parasite strains (Chaparro et al. 2017; dos Santos et al. 2019;
Duarte et al. 2019). The combined use of more than one anthelmintic has been found adequately
effective against resistant parasites (Borges et al. 2020). Long-acting products are though
potentially effective (Ballent et al. 2019) but also have a risk of resistance development
(Leathwick et al. 2006). Nevertheless, narrow-spectrum anthelimintics appear to be a better
choice if they are used with absolute care. An alternate approach is to carry out ‘faecal egg count
reduction test’ (FECRT) before choosing an anthelimintic (Salgado et al. 2019). However, an
even better, time-saving, economical, and standard strategy is to carry out DNA-based testing
regionally to identify resistant strains of H. contortus against a range of drugs (Ehrenreich et al.
2012). Studies have also been conducted to check the efficacy of other non-conventional
compounds of plant origin (Zamilpa et al. 2019; Mravčáková et al. 2020) with variable success
and preferred because of their non-residual effect in meat and milk. Few other substances like
anti-protozoan drugs (Nixon et al. 2019), heterocyclic compounds (Nguyen et al. 2019), and
organophosphate (Duarte et al. 2019).
3. MATERIALS AND METHODS

3.1. Study Area

The study will be conducted from (May 2015 to November 2016) in Kutaber veterinary clinc,
Alansha kebele ,borumeda in dessie zuria and dessie town . Kutaber is located at 11012ʹ36"
−11018ʹ36" N latitude and 39031ʹ12" −39034ʹ12" E longitude. The district bordered on the south
by Dessie Zuria, on the west by the Adila River, on the north by the Walano River, and on the
east by Tehuledere district (Figure 1). Kutaber district have highland and lowland areas with
minimum and maximum rainfall ranges between 500 and 955 ml in rainy season. ..., market
places and fields.

Kutaber area poses highland and lowland areas. The average minimum and maximum rainfall
ranges between 500 and 955ml in short and long rainy season. The average annual temperature is
22°c. Mixed agriculture is the main occupation of the population of the area. The major livestock
reared in the area are sheep, goat, cattle, poultry and equine. According to statistical data,
Kutaber Woreda has livestock population of 69,720 cattle, 65, 727sheep, 53, 304 goats, 18, 005
Equines and 104, 737 chickens (KLRDO, 2018). Dessie zuria is located in South Wollo Zone,
Amhara regional state and has latitude of 11°7'37.34"N and a longitude of 39°38'10.79"E. (CSA,
2005). It is one of the Woredas in South Wollo Zone, which is a moisture deficit Woreda. The
major agro-ecologies are moist low and highlands (52%) and sub moist low and highlands
(47%). The Woreda has rugged topography with highly degraded soils which are not generally
suitable for cropping and land holding per household is small. The livestock population of the
district is comprised of 22833 cattle, 29054 sheep and goats, 7493 equines and 12711 poultry.
Dessie Zuria is situated at an altitude ranging 1700-3800 meters above sea level with area of
937.32 km2. Dessie Zuria districts receive an average annual rainfall 1150 ml and the mean
annual temperature is 10.5oc. Because of the high altitude less annual temperature recorded
(Dessie zuria agricultural and rural development office, 2022).

3.2. Study population

Study population will be all age group of ovine (young,adult,old) used for different purpose
found in the study areas.

3.3. Study Design

A cross- sectional study type will carry out on purposively selected ovine found in kutaber
Woreda to study prevalence of ovine haemoncosis (haemoncos contortus) and associated risk
factor.

3.4. Sample size determination and sampling method

The study animals will be selected by using simple random sampling method. Sample size will
be determined by using the following single population proportion formula employed by
Thrusfield, M. (2007).

N= (Zα/2)2 ×Pexp (1-Pexp)

d2

Where: -N= required sample size

Zα/2= the Z (normal distribution) value for a chosen confidence level

Pexp= expected prevalence

d = desired absolute precision

A 95% confidence interval at 5% desired absolute precision and the expected prevalence of 50%
since there was no previous related study in the study area will use. As a result sample size will
be 384 ovine in study area.

3.5. Faecal Samples Collection and Examination

Faecal samples will collected directly from the rectum using arm length rubber gloves and placed
on screw-corked universal bottles which was labeled accordingly and soon brought to Wollo
University Parasitology Laboratory. Information about the age, sex, body conditions, owner
name and date of collection will record.

3.6. Data Management and Analysis

The data collected will be stored in Microsoft Office Excel data-base system and analyzed using
(SPSS) STATA software programs. Overall prevalence will calculated dividing the number of
positive sheep by the total number of sheep examined and times by 100. Chi- square statistics
will apply to test the statistical association exists among the risk factor such as age, sex, peasant
association and body condition scoring with the presence of the parasite. A statistical significant
P < 0.05 will use to test the association of the risk factors with the disease prevalence.

4. WORK PLAN

Table 1: work plan how to conduct the thesis

No Activity September October November December

1 Literature _______ ________

search
2 Proposal ______
development
3 Data _______ ________ _______
collection
4 Data entry _______ ______
and analysis
5 Thesis write ______ ______ ______
up

4. EXPECTED OUTPUTS

• The magnitude of prevalence of ovine hamoncosis in kutaber woreda and slaughter

sheep in Dessie municipal avatter will be determined.

• The etiological agent of ovine hamoncosis, which is common in the study area, will be
identified.

• The possible risk factors associated with the transmission and pathogencityof this disease
will be identified.

• The relative economic significance of the disease will be assessed.

• There will be a clear and feasible recommendation on the control and prevention
measures of the disease, and how to upgrade this poor management of traditionally managed
local sheep.

5. LOGISTICS AND COST BREAKDOWN

Table 2: Cost of materials, equipment and chemicals

NO Item Unit quantity Price in Total

quantity price
1 Glove 1 300 2 600

2 Boot 1 pair 1 250 250

3 Sodium
chloride
4 Bottle 100 100
5 Transport 500 500
6 Gown 1 200 200

TOTA 1550
L

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