Babesiosis and Other Heamoparasitic Disease in a Cattle Slaughtering Abattoir in Abeokuta, Nigeria

Babesiosis, an haemoparasitic disease caused by Babesia spp and transmitted by ticks is one of the major public health threat to cattle rearing in most countries, including Nigeria. The disease impose a serious burden on the healthcare infrastructure of both the cattle and their handlers. This study therefore investigated the prevalence of Babesiosis and other haemoparasitic disease in a cattle slaughtering abattoir in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria. A total of 162 cattle were examined between May and August 2014. Blood samples were collected from the jugular vein of the cattle at point of slaughter in bottles containing ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA) and transported to the laboratory for parasitological examination. Using microscopy, prepared Giemsa stained slides were observed under high powered digital Swift™ microscope at 4,500,000 resolution and x100 objective lens. Of the 162 cattle sampled, 83(51.2%) were males and 79(48.8%) were females. An overall prevalence of 27.8% was recorded for haemoparasites such as Babesia spp (8.0%), Trypanosoma spp (1.9%), Theileria spp (9.3%) and Anaplasma spp (18.5%). There was no sex and age predilection for the haemoparasites observed (P>0.05). The findings of this study show that Babesiosis and other haemoparasitic disease are prevalent in the slaughtering abattoir. Proper vector control methods and treatment with drugs in some of the source ranches of the cattle would be necessary to avoid vertical transmission between infected cattle and susceptible ones.