Blood Parameters and Prevalence of Caprine Babesiosis at Azare Abbatoir of Bauchi State, Nigeria

Abstract

Babesiosis is a haemolytic disease caused by intra erythrocytic protozoan of the genus babesia. It is a disease of small and large ruminants. Its prevalence among goats slaughtered at the Azare abbatoir of Bauchi state, Nigeria was determined in this study. Atotal of 30 goats (mixed sexes) raised on extensive and semi intensive system of management were selected and slaughtered at the Azare abbatoir, Bauchi state, Nigeria. The blood samples were collected from the jugular vein of the animals at slaughter in bottles containing ethylene diamine tetra acetic acid (EDTA). The blood samples were taken to the protozoology laboratory for hematology, serum biochemistry and ELISA test. Sex significantly (P<0.05) influenced the hematological and serum biochemical parameters of red Sokoto goats with does having higher packed cell volume values (46.11 %) than the bucks (41.21 %). The heamoglobin (8.21-8.61 g/dl), white blood cells (11.25-11.71X103/mm3), mean corpuscular heamoglobin (29.11-32.31 g/dl) and mean corpuscular heamoglobin are statistically similar (P>0.05). On the other hand the results of prevalence of babesiosis in red Sokoto goats showed 10 % prevalence rate in both buck and does with 20% total prevalence rate.