Parasitic Load of Cattle Faecal Matter from Selected Farms in Kpong and its Health Implications

Cattle, one of the domesticated animals which are a potential source of parasitic contamination of land and water resources were studied to establish the parasitic load as a measure of quantifying the biological quality of land and water sources to determine the level of parasite load of the environment. A total of 180 faecal samples were collected from three farms in Kpong in the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality for the study. The samples were collected between 9 - 10 am when the animals released from kraal to be grazed and the faecal matter were collected as soon as it was dropped on the ground. The samples were collected with wide mouth plastic containers (about 500 ml) with lid. Samples were transported to the Water Research Institute Parasitology Laboratory for analysis. 10 g sample each was placed in a test tube and 10 ml of PBS was added to it. It was then processed and a drop was placed on a microscope slide and Lugol's iodine was added and observed under X 40 objective lens of the microscope. A total of 111 (61.67 %) out of the 180 faecal samples were found to contain the following parasites whilst 95 (85.59 %) had Ascaris sp., eight (7.20 %) had Strongyloides sp., one (0.90 %) had Trichuris erichiun and one (0.90 %) sample had Paragonimus sp. Five (4.50 %) samples had mix infections of Ascaris sp and Strongyloides sp. And 1 (0.90 %) sample had a mixture of Ascaris sp and T. berichiun. Infestation with Ascaris sp was found to be significantly higher (p > 0.001) than all the other parasites indicating that the animals are not often given worm expellants as expected and this can lead to zoonotic transmission of the parasite, as the cattle are reared on the same compound with the humans. This can affect the health of children as they played in the dung contaminated soils in their compound, thereby leading to absenteeism from school due to loss of blood from worm infestation leading to anaemia. The worm infestation can also lead to malnutrition and stunted growth in the children

Prevalence of Giardia species in Cattle Faecal Matter in Selected Farms in Weija and Kpong Major Water Supply Heads to Accra, Ghana.

In developing countries including Ghana, giardiasis plays a major role in gastroenteritis in vertebrate. It poses health and socio-economic burden, and continues to be one of the causes of infant and calf mortality. Their infection continues to thrive in humans due to the zoonotic transmission of infected domesticated animals including cattle, dogs and cats, and their con­tinual presence in water bodies. The objective of this study was to establish their presence and evaluate the prevalence of Giardia sp. in cattle faecal matter in the environment in the Kpong and Weija communities. The Iron-haematoxylin staining techniques was used to analyze the faecal samples in order to identify Giardia sp. (Student t- test and Chi square were the statistical analyses) used for the studies. About five percent (5.3%) prevalence was obtained in both com­munities and this was significant (p> 0.05). The parasite was found to be most prevalent (9.4%) in calves less than 3 months old and this decreased with age of calf. It was also observed that Giardia plays an important role in the cause of diarrhoea in cattle. There is the need to educate people on the disease and its implication on the quality of water from the treatment plants. Keywords: Giardia sp, water, contamination, diarrhoea, infant mortality