Prevalence of Gastro-intestinal Parasites of Cattle in Ogbomoso, Oyo State

A study was carried out on the prevalence of gastrointestinal (GI) nematodes infection in naturally infected cattle in Ogbomoso area of Oyo State using standard parasitological techniques. The results indicated that out of the 1000 cattle examined, 30(3%) were infected and parasites identified were Haemonchus contortus 8(26.7%), Trichostrongylus spp 13(43.3%) and Cooperia spp 2(6.7%) as single infection. Mixed infections involved Haemonchus contortus with Trichostrongylus spp 5(16.7%), H. contortus with Cooperia spp 2(6.7%) being statistically significant (p<0.05).The prevalence rates of GI nematodes based on the sex and age of the cattle were 3.02%, 2.97%, 3.2% and 2.8% in adult, young, male and female animals respectively, with the highest faecal egg counts in adult animals with no statistical significance difference (p>0.05). Both female and male cattle were more infected with Haemonchus contortus with 5 (62.5%) each, while only male and young cattle were infected with Cooperia spp 2 (100%) and 1 (50%) respectively. The highest rate of mixed infection occurred in adult cattle with Haemonchus contortus and Trichostrongylus spp 2 (100%) followed by Haemonchus contortus and Cooperia spp in male 4 (80%) and adult 3 (60%).The variation in the prevalence of GI nematodes among sex and age groups within systems can be used as an entry point towards rational use of anthelmintics for each management system. More studies on seasonal transmission pattern of all these parasites are required in order to design rational, economic and locally sustainable parasite control programmes.Key words: Prevalence, gastro-intestinal parasites, Cattle, Ogbomos