Abattoir-Based Study of The Susceptibility if two Naturally Infected Breeds of Goat To Haemonchus Contortus in Nsukka Area of Enugu State Nigeria

Abstract

The study was carried out to assess the susceptibility of two indgenous breeds of goat – the Red Sokoto (RS) and the WestAfrican Dwarf (WAD) goats to Haemonchus contortus infection by using the abomasa worm burden and the worm’s uterine egg count as the indices. One hundred (100) abomasa each from the RS and WAD saughter goats were purchased from Nsukka Urban abattoir and Ibagwa rural abattoir for examinaton between October 2002 and Janaury 203. The WAD goats had a sign ficanty higher worm burden (7286) than the Red Sokoto goats (4675) (P<0.01).The female-male ratio of the worms showed the RS goats with a higher female population ratio of 1:0:90 as against the 1:1:03 for WAD goats. 240 adult female worms, which were randomly selected from each breed for the uterine egg count showed that the average uterine egg count wassignificanty higher in WAD goats (748.37) thanin RS goats (620.50) (P<0.01). Both the worm and egg burdens exhibited a significant steady drop in both breeds from October 2002 to January 2003 (P<0.001). It is suggestive from this study that RS goats may be less susceptible to naturally acquired Haemonchus contortus infection than WAD goats