Hemo-parasites (HP)
are one of the major constraints to the economic development of the livestock industry
in Uganda. Generally, the occurrence and importance of HP is a reflection of complex
interactions involving the causative organisms, tick vectors, the vertebrate hosts
and the environment. We carried out a cross sectional study to identify and determine
the prevalence of the major HPs in Central and Western Uganda, to form a baseline
for appropriate interventions. A total of 295 bovine samples were analyzed from
15 districts of Uganda; 56.3% being from the Central and 43.7% from the Western
region of the country for a period of six months, and a questionnaire was administered
to the farmers. Thin peripheral blood smears stained with Giemsa were used during
the laboratory identification of the parasites. The disease prevalence was established
at 47.4%, 6.7%, 1.9% and 14.4% for Theleria
parva, Babesia spp., Trypanasoma brucei, Anaplasma spp. with a corresponding disease
risk ratio (DRR) of 67.4%, 9.5%, 2.6%, 20.5% respectively in Uganda. The odds of
having an infection from the Central region were 1.7 times greater (P < 0.05)
than those from the Western region with a corresponding risk ratio of 1.2 (CI.1.1,
2.84, 95%), which showed that there exist marked differences between the two regions.
Mean PCV was at 29.8%, and majority (59%) of infected animals had low PCV which
varied across the months. These showed that generally, cattle in the West are more
severely affected by HP than those from the Central region. The questionnaire revealed
that 100% of the farmer treatments are based on clinical sign presentation, with
occasional reliance on veterinarians. In conclusion, the burden of
hemo-parasites is steadily increasing across the regions, and the current
policies are not helping farmers who are hit the hardest by the development of
antibiotic and acaricide resistance. These findings, along with previous
studies, suggest that eradication HP is not feasible unless there are radical
changes implemented, and that current practices are expensive and
unsustainable. Further studies would be carried out to provide knowledge on the
level of antibiotic resistance for the promotion of veterinary public health and
trade.
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