Studies on Zwai Wetlands as Reservoirs of Gastrointestinal Parasites of Sheep and Humans and as Habitats of Snail Vectors.
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Date
2019-10-10
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
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.
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Keywords
Gastrointestinal Parasites, Lake Zwai, Schoolchildren, Sheep, Wetland