SURVEY ON THE OCCURRENCE OF PORCINE HELMINTHOSIS IN SMALLHOLDER PIGS REARED IN WUKARI SOUTHERN SENATORIAL ZONE, TARABA STATE, NORTH EASTERN NIGERIA

Kontan, D.D¹, Nyiputen, T¹, Samson, H¹,Aleng, Z.J¹andGlory, M¹

Departmentof Animal Health,

College of Agriculture P.M.B. 1025, Jalingo.  Taraba State, Nigeria

E-mail:dicksondicknwi@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

The study was conducted to determine the occurrence of porcine helminthosis in Wukari Local Government area of Taraba state, North-eastern Nigeria. Samples were collected from 203pigs comprising of both young and adults of all sexes. The overall prevalence was 33.83%. A simple percentage analysis was carried out to ascertain the infection rates of these parasites. There was no significant difference in prevalence of infection. There was however, a significant difference in infection by sex. Male pigs (48.28%) had lower prevalence than the sows (51.72%). The study has a lot of health implications on the residents of the study area, because, a large proportion of them depend on pork as their main animal protein source. In this study, the adult pigs are found to be infected with a percentage positive of (56.16%) compared to their young ones that recorded an occurrence of (43.84%).The results also portend great economic loss by the pig farmers, who are mostly peasants. In addition, the farmers stand the risk of infection with A.suum, cysticercosis and could also serve as carriers of cysts and eggs. There is therefore, an urgent need for health education on the zoonotic nature of the disease by veterinarians and other Public Health stakeholders in the study area.

Keywords: Porcine, Helminthosis, Occurrence