Prevalence of Small Ruminant Diseases/Disorders at Mokola Veterinary Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria

Abstract

This research work focused on the prevalent diseases of small ruminant animals brought to Mokola Veterinary Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria, from January 2009 to June 2013. The objective was to determine the prevalence of diseases in small ruminants so as to establish a pattern of occurrence. A total of 271 cases on small ruminants were brought to the hospital from January 2009 to June 2013. Out of these, 199 (73.43%) were sheep while 72 (26.57%) were goats. All data were subjected to simple descriptive frequency analysis to determine the prevalence of each disease. The results showed that viral, bacterial, metabolic, ectoparasitic, endoparasitic, traumatic, poisoning , nutritional, dystocial, diarrheic and protozoan diseases had prevalences of 9.96% (27), 19.56% (53), 4.79% (13), 11.81% (32), 36.53% (99), 11.07% (30), 1.48% (4), 0.37% (1), 2.58% (7), 1.11% (3) and 0.74% (2) respectively for the aggregate small ruminants. The overall results showed that the most prevalent during the period of study was endoparasitism followed by bacterial, ectoparasitic, traumatic, viral, metabolic, dystocial, poisoning, diarrheic, protozoan and the least being malnutritional diseases/disorders. The results further showed  prevalence rates of 15.28% (11), 23.61% (17), 12.50% (9), 31.94% (23), 8.33% (6), 5.56% (4), 1.39% (1) and 1.39% (1) against viral, bacterial, ectoparasitic, endoparasitic, trauma, dystocial, diarrheic, and protozoan diseases/disorders for goats while 8.04% (16), 18.09% (36), 6.53% (13), 11.56% (23), 38.19% (76), 12.06% (24), 2.01% (4), 0.50% (1), 1.51% (3), 1.01% (2) and 0.50% (1) against viral, bacterial, metabolic, ectoparasitic, endoparasitic, trauma, poisoning, malnutrition, dystocial, diarrheic and protozoan diseases/disorders for sheep respectively. Generally, sheep were more affected than goats whereas metabolic, poisoning and malnutrition were not recorded against goats but sheep. Therefore it is recommended that there should be improved vaccination, deworming, hygiene, sanitation, housing, supplementation and regular medical checkup for small ruminant animals to help stamp out or reduce diseases/disorders.

Keywords: Prevalence, Small Ruminants, Veterinary Hospital, Diseases/Disorders