Browsing by Author "Sisay, Ayalew"

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    Studies on Zwai Wetlands as Reservoirs of Gastrointestinal Parasites of Sheep and Humans and as Habitats of Snail Vectors.
    (Addis Ababa University, 2019-10-10) Sisay, Ayalew; Lemma, Brook (Professor)
    In tropical countries like Ethiopia where the wet seasons are restricted to less than five months of the year, wetlands such as those found around Lake Zwai provide ideal environments for water-related diseases of sheep and humans. As a consequence, this study was conducted over a 2-year period to study the gastro-intestinal parasites of sheep and humans (schoolchildren) that frequently visit the wetlands of Lake Zwai, the intermediate hosts (snails) inhabiting the same wetlands and the effectiveness of drugs on the gastro-intestinal parasites identified in the wetlands. The results generally showed that the wetlands of Lake Zwai are infested with gastro-intestinal parasites as shown in the tracer animals used (sheep) and by a different set of parasites picked by schoolchildren visiting the same wetlands. The snail vectors surveyed in these wetlands were generally found to host the diseases of the sheep rather than those diseases of the schoolchildren. The drug effectiveness trials conducted of the livestock gastro-intestinal nematode parasites were found to be susceptible in Tetramizole and Ivermectine, with lower resistance in only one drug (Albendazole). It was concluded that Zwai wetlands that provide fresh herbage to sheep throughout the year and attractive playing grounds to schoolchildren of a nearby school, provide conducive environments mostly to waterborne gastro-intestinal parasites of sheep and to a lesser extent to humans (schoolchildren). In all cases of the definitive hosts (sheep and humans), their performance in life is severely affected, if in rare cases deaths do not occur. It was, therefore, recommended that visits of sheep and humans to the wetlands should be restricted particularly at peak infection months, inflow of animal wastes with parasite eggs be diverted for treatment, regimes of prophylactic treatments should be introduced and generally awareness of the disease cycles, herbages for animals should be collected and treated before feeding the sheep, safe wetland playing-grounds for schoolchildren should be identified and safe wastehandling methods should be introduced into the local population and sheep owners.