Major trematode infections of sheep in lemo woreda and associated economic loss due to liver condemnation at Hossana Town, Southern Ethiopia

Trematode infection is a prevalent parasitic disease of livestock that causes one of the major problems leading to a huge economic loss in livestock production. The cross sectional study was conducted from October 2015 to June 2016 at Lemo Woreda and Hossana Town to determine the infection rate, predominant trematode species, fluke burden and severity of liver pathological lesions of sheep slaughtered at Hossana Town, and to assess the direct economic loss due to liver condemnation. The sample population of 384 sheep from the study area were randomly selected and examined for the presence of eggs by sedimentation techniques and 384 sheep were also selected by systematic sampling techniques for the trematode species identification from slaughter houses at Hossana Town. The overall infection rate of trematode species of sheep from PAs was 32.6%.The infection rate of trematode species of sheep on this study was significantly associated (p<0.05) with body condition, age, breed and location of study animal. However, there was no statistically significant association of trematode infection with sex of study animal (p>0.05).It was noticed that, a higher infection rate was identified in young (85.7%) than adult (29.5%) sheep, and cross breed (66.7%) were most affected as compared to local (28.8%) sheep breed. Sheep having thin (53.5%) body condition were higher in infection rate of trematode species than average (31.8%) and fat (16.3%). The major trematode species recognized was Fasciola hepatica (60.8%) followed by mixed trematode species (28%).The overall prevalence of trematode infection of sheep due to liver condemnation in this study was 33.9%. The average mean flukes were 34.90 per affected liver. The average mean worm burden that was responsible for the liver pathology types such as moderately, severely and lightly affected livers were (54.56±4.469), (34.75±1.620) and (18.67±0.311), respectively. A liver associated economic loss identified in sheep by trematode species at Hossana Town was estimated to 116,860.08 Ethiopian birr or 5564.80USD Per annum. Trematode infection was highly spreaded parasitic disease and causes a considerable economic loss in the study area. Therefore, environment for the development of snails should be clearly identified by all stakeholders in order to understand their effects on the disease occurrence as well as in control and prevention of trematode infection.