Major Metacestodes in Cattle Slaughtered at Nekemte Municipal Abattoir, Western Ethiopia: Prevalence, Cyst Viability, Organ Distribution and Socioeconomic Implications

A cross sectional study to determine the prevalence and socioeconomicimportance of major metacestodes of cattle was conducted from November 2010 to March 2011 at Nekemte municipality abattoir. Accordingly, of 436 randomly selected slaughtered cattle, theprevalence of C.bovis and hydatid cyst was found to be 2.98%(13/436) and 23.17% (101/436), respectively. The logistic regressionfor the prevalence of cysticercosis indicated that there was statistically significant difference (p< 0.05) observed between body condition scores. The statistical analysis for the prevalence of hydatid cysts also indicated that there was no statistically significant difference (p> 0.05)observed between the age groups and body condition scores for the prevalence of hydatidosis (p= 0.377) and (p= 0.070). Of the total 27 C. bovis cysts and 236 hydatid cysts collected, 17 (47.09) and 12(5.57) were found to be alive, respectively indicating the higher proportion of viable C. bovis cyst than hydatid cyst. Out of the total 72 interviewed volunteer respondents of Nekemte town, 9.72 % (7/72) had contracted T. saginata. The logistic regression analysis of the risk factors showed that there was no statistically significant difference (p>0.05) observed among the important risk factors for the prevalence of Taeniasis, age (p= 0.248), occupation (p= 0.211), literacy (p= 0.211) and marital status (p= 0.610). The economic impact of Taeniasis from the estimates of yearly adult taenicidal drugs dose and its worth was 198, 676 adult taenicidal drug doses and a total worth of 523,112 Eth. Birr. This study revealed the relatively high dose of Alebendazole,Niclosamide, Mebendazole and Praziquantel, respectively. In conclusion, the findings of the present study revealed that the zoonotic and socioeconomic importance of the diseases needs intervention.