Prevalence of and infections in households sheep "Elevage en case" in Dakar, Senegal.

AIM

The study aimed to evaluate the occurrence of anti- and anti- antibodies in sheep breeding in a particular husbandry system called "Elevage en case" in Dakar, Senegal.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Blood samples were collected from 278 sheep. Serum was harvested and used for analysis. For the detection of antibodies, 278 sera were analyzed using the modified agglutination test, while the enzyme linked-immunosorbent assay was used on 174 sheep sera to look for antibodies.

RESULTS

This study showed that 29.4±6.8% of sheep carried both and antibodies. The overall prevalence was 60.1±5.7% and 41.9±7.3% for toxoplasmosis and neosporosis, respectively. For toxoplasmosis, the prevalence was higher in Gueule Tapée (63.3%) than in Medina (58.9%), but the variation was not significant (p=0.45). Regarding the age of animals, the prevalence was significantly higher in animals over 2 years old compared to those under 2 years old (p=0.002). For neosporosis, the prevalence was significantly higher in Medina (48.67%) than Gueule Tapée (16.7%) (p=0.001), but non-significant variation was noted according to animal age.

CONCLUSION

The study showed that sheep reared in households have carried antibodies of and . The prevalence was high and it means that consumption of meat from these animals is risky if the meat is eaten undercooked.