Prevalence of Ovine Haemonchosis in Wukro, Ethiopia

Background. Haemonchosis caused by Haemonchus contortus is a predominant, highly pathogenic, and economically important disease of sheep and goats. Objective. Assessing the prevalence of Haemonchus parasite and its associated risk factors in sheep slaughtered at different restaurants of Wukro. Methods. Cross-sectional study using random sampling from November 2013 to April 2014 in a total of 384 sheep was conducted and SPSS version 20 software using descriptive statistics was used for data analysis and P < 0.05 was considered significant. Result. The overall prevalence of Haemonchus contortus was 40.9% (n = 157). The prevalence in medium body condition 27.3% (n = 105) varies significantly from that of good body condition 13.5% (n = 52) (P < 0.05). Moreover, there was significant variation (P < 0.05) in the prevalence in young and adult sheep with rates of 21.9% (n = 84) and 19% (n = 73), respectively. At the same time, there is significant variation (P < 0.05) in male and female sheep with prevalence of 29.7% (n = 114) and 11.2% (n = 43), respectively. The prevalence of 25.3% (n = 97) in sheep that originated from Negash compared to Wukro and Agulae showed no significant variation (P > 0.05). Conclusion. The current finding revealed that significant numbers of sheep were affected by the parasites. Hence strategic deworming with good husbandry practice should be implemented.