Haemoparasitic infection in cattle in some pastoral communities in Jos and Bauchi areas of Nigeria

Buffy coat haematocrit and microscopic examinations were carried out on 1,040 blood samples of cattle in four high altitude pastoral communities to the north of Jos and south-east of Bauchi. The herds were traditionally raised in hilly, rocky and semi-arid pasture. It was found that parasitaemia occurred in 35.2% of livestock but infection rate was as high as 52.3% in one of the communities. Parasites seen in the blood included Anaplasma marginale (40.7%), Theileria mutans (37.7%), Babesia species (15.3%) and trypanosomes (6.3%), Friesian cattle had higher (