Survey of bovine fasciolosis burdens in trade cattle slaughtered at abattoirs in North-central Nigeria: The associated predisposing factors and economic implication

a t e / p a r e p i Abunna et al., 2010).Furthermore, the disease is of great public health concern because of an increasing number of reported human cases from accidental ingestion of Fasciola eggs/larvae (WHO, 1995;Mas-Coma et al., 2009).Abattoir surveillance has been used in many countries as an important strategy for detection of disease cases and provides essential information that can be utilized for research and disease control purposes (Phiri, 2006).The use of meat inspection to detect disease cases in slaughter facilities is particularly useful in Africa where laboratory capacity for routine disease diagnosis is limited (Phiri, 2006;Cadmus and Adesokan, 2009).With paucity of empirical information on the burdens and associated predisposing internal (biological) and external (climatic and environmental) factors for fasciolosis, such data are needed to serve as convenient and inexpensive source of information for the development of fasciolosis control programs in Africa.This study was, therefore, aimed to investigate burdens, associated risks and economic impact of bovine fasciolosis in trade cattle slaughtered in municipal abattoirs of North-central Nigeria.Our Null hypothesis was that biological characteristics of animals (intrinsic factors), seasons and geographical locations (extrinsic factors) cannot influence occurrence of bovine fasciolosis in Nigeria.