Abstract:
Gastrointestinal nematode parasites infections are major health problems affecting the
productivity, reproductive performance and wellbeing of small ruminants in Ethiopia. Thus,
acquiring knowledge on their occurrence, burden, distribution, resistance to chemotherapies and
so on are helpful in designing effective control strategies. Therefore, a cross-sectional study and
controlled field trials were carried out from December 2019 to June 2020 in Deder district, with
the objectives of estimating the prevalence and identifying the risk factors of gastrointestinal
nematodes and evaluating anthelmintic efficacy in small ruminants. A total of 324 faecal samples
were collected and fecal flotation technique were used for qualitative and Mc Master technique
for quantitatifying number of egg. Of 227 goat and 97 sheep examined 65.4% (212) were found
infected with different types of gastrointestinal nematodes. The prevalence in sheep were 75.26%
while that of goat were 61.23%. This study revealed the dominant genera to be strongyles 78.7%
followed by Trichuris 10.8%, and mixed nematode infection 10.3%. Fecal samples that were
positive by qualitative parasitological techniques were subjected to EPG count using McMaster
egg counting technique. Species,sex age ,husbandery system, source of drinking water and
deworming history of the animal were considered as possible risk factors associated with
nematode infection with univariate and multivariate analysis and the result showed all the four
risk factors were statistically significant (p<0.05). Of 80 goats examined, 60 of them having epg
> 150 were included in the efficacy trials. The faecal egg count reduction test against
albendazole, Tetraclozash and ivermectin indicated that FECRT% (97.14%,93.3 and 96.2% )
respectively for albendazole, tetraclozan, and ivermectin, which indicate that from the tested
three drugs albendazole and ivermectin are effective in removing the parasites, while tetraclozan
is considered as suspect of developing resistance or reduced efficacy.In conclusion, this study
revealed that GIT nematodes are of the major helminthosis of sheep and goat in deder district.
The high prevalence of GIT nematode of small ruminant recorded is indicative of the abundance
and importance of the disease in the study area. rotational grazing of pasture
and strategic deworming with albendazole and ivermectin were recommended
