Prevalence, Risk Factors and Economic Impacts of Ruminant Echinococcosis in the Urban Slaughterhouse of Dedougou, Burkina Faso

Parasitic diseases in domestic animals are a permanent obstacle for production, food safety and consumer health. The present work was conducted from september 2020 to april 2021 at the Dedougou abattoir to evaluate the prevalence of echinococcosis and the risk factors associated to this pathology in ruminants. Out of 14497 ruminants inspected, the prevalence of echinococcosis was 0.21%. The prevalence of echinococcosis in cattle, goats and sheep was 0.1%, 0.2% and 0.5% respectively, suggesting a significant effect of species on the transmission of the disease (P-value = 0.0203). Sheep were the most susceptible followed by goats. In addition to the animal species, the effect of animal’s age on the level of infestation was also significant, particularly for goats where the prevalence in animals under two years old (0.4%) was relatively higher (P-value=0.0001) than that recorded in animals over two years old (0.06%). Regarding the other risk factors studied, no significant impact was observed. Regarding condemnation, intestines (70.96%), livers (9.67%), and spleens (19.35%) were the organs affected by hydatid cysts and therefore seized. In view of the importance of ours results, control strategies must be put in place against this pathology in the commune in order to further reduce its impact on ruminants and to serve consumers with safe meat.