Prevalencia y factores asociados a las parasitosis gastrointestinales en ovinos del departamento de Córdoba, Colombia

Abstract

A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out in 60 sheep production systems distributed in the 30 municipalities of the department of Córdoba. 595 stool samples were collected, the samples were analyzed using the McMaster and Corticelli techniques to establish prevalence and parasite loads by counting eggs per gram and the nematode genera, respectively. For the analysis of the association of epidemiological factors and the degree of parasitic infestation, means, medians and confidence intervals were compared.; The Kruskal-Wallis test was applied with a 5% of significance level; the statistical program EpiInfo, version 7.2.2.2, was used. Finally, an analysis was carried out on the georeferenced data and epidemiological maps were constructed with the distribution of prevalence and parasite loads. The areas with the highest concentration of parasite loads were identified by means of the Kernel density estimator; A bandwidth of 25 km was used and the QGIS program, version 3.4. The overall prevalence showed that 95.1% of the animals were positive for one or more groups of parasites. At a global level, an association was found between the degree of parasitic infection and the variables: anthelmintic used, sex, productive status, age and breed. The degree of infection by Trichostrongylidae was associated with the body condition of the sheep, the heart rate, the hematocrit and the Famacha® result. Regarding the association of the region and municipality variables with the degree of parasitic infection, the significance was found at a global level. In the studied farms, a prevalence of 100% was identified for the Trichostrongylidae family, 78.3% for Strongyloides spp., 76.7% for Haemonchus spp., 53.3% for Oesophagostomum spp., 10% for Bunostomum spp. and 1.7% for Cooperia spp. It is recommended to carry out studies on the state of parasitic resistance and to implement prevention, management and sanitary control strategies at the different sheep productions of the department.