Zoonotic and animal diseases - Helminths
In Ethiopia, PGE in cattle results principally from infections with the nematodes Haemonchus spp, Bunostomum spp and Oesophagostomum spp.. If these parasites remain uncontrolled they also make their hosts more susceptible to secondary viral and bacterial infections, causing greater economic losses. The flukes commonly occurring in Ethiopia are Fasciola spp., Paramphistomes and Schistosoma spp. In contrast to infections with nematodes where due to immunity development only young animals are affected, infections with trematodes don’t result in immunity development and therefore all age classes are affected. Although rainfall varies seasonally in the Jimma zone, it can be expected that climatic conditions generally favour the development/survival of the free-living stages of helminths on these pasturelands throughout the year and therefore, that most animals are infected throughout the year. Since it is economically not justified to treat all animals, a key problem is to identify those individual animals requiring therapeutic treatment. Conventional diagnosis of helminth infections is laborious and expensive, and often not informative in providing a decision on whether to treat or not.
