Bovine cysticercosis in Ethiopia: A systematic review and meta-analysis of prevalence from abattoir-based surveys.

Ethiopia is well known for its huge livestock resource that stands number one in Africa and 10th in the world. However, cattle production is constrained by inadequate nutrition, disease, lack of support services and inadequate information. This systematic review and meta-analysis of prevalence of C. bovis in Ethiopia aims to provide a national level prevalence of the parasite from reports conducted in different parts of the country. Due to the expected variation between studies, a random-effects meta-analysis was carried out using the total sample size and number of positives (effect size and standard error of the effect size). Individual study prevalence estimates ranged from 0% to 20% with an overall pooled prevalence of 7% (95% CI = 5%-8%). Studies weighted approximately equal with weights on individual studies ranging from 2% to 2.6% due to high heterogeneity between studies. The meta-analysis indicated that between-study variability was high (τ = 0.001; heterogeneity I = 99.20% with Heterogeneity chi-square = 4974.9 and, an associated p-value of 0.01). This parasite is indicated to be one of the causes of organ condemnation causing losses of million dollars annually in the country.