PREVALENCE OF BOVINE FASCIOLOSIS AT THE IBADAN MUNICIPAL ABATTOIR, NIGERIA Oladele-Bukola MO1 and IA Odetokun2

Food animals are important sources of high quality protein and revenue to man, and can also serve as vehicles for disease transmission. Apart from economic losses, diseased organs in slaughtered cattle can also be sources of epidemiologic and zoonotic threats to man if not detected and controlled. The study was conducted to evaluate the number of cattle slaughtered, prevalence, seasonal variation, and socioeconomic consequence of bovine fasciolosis at the Ibadan Municipal abattoir, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria, between 1994 and 2004 based on retrospective abattoir meat inspection records and a perspective meat inspection survey. Of the 1, 640,095 cattle slaughtered in 11 years, 37, 828 livers were condemned due to fasciolosis, translating into a prevalence of 2.31%. The incidence observed among males 172 (4.24%) was slightly higher than noted for females 452 (3.73%) though significant at 0.05 level of error. More so, the prevalence recorded in the dry season (October – March) was 19, 816 (2.58%) and 18, 012 (2.07%) for the rainy season (April – September) with a fairly strong positive correlation (+0.76) occurring between the incidence of the disease in the seasons. The economic impact of the losses due to fasciolosis was estimated at N19, 618,639 Nigerian Naira ($147, 121) which was a huge loss to the livestock industry and the nation . With these findings, there is need to carry out a more elaborate survey of the disease in selected abattoirs, clinical and parasitological surveys in ranches and ecological studies in majors rivers and ponds throughout the country. Public awareness campaigns, planned herd health programmes, flukes and intermediate hosts control and effective meat inspection are also needed. There should be enforcement of ante-mortem examination in all abattoirs in Nigeria in order to reduce wastage while identifying diseases of public health and economic importance before slaughter. This will minimize health risks and the associated huge economic loss. Compensation of butchers and meat traders with condemned livers is recommended, in order to salvage constant prevalence of fasciolosis in Nigeria.