Case Report on Cattle Pediculosis Outbreak in Jimma University on Cattle Kept for Practical Demonstration and the Control Measures Taken on Time

Abstract

Lice are permanent host specific skin parasites of animals that cannot survive out of their natural host more than a few days. Cattle affected by both sucking lice and biting lice. The present case was presented to Jimma University open air clinic with chief complaint of itching and weight loss.  The animal was a bull kept in Jimma University College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine for practical demonstration. It was bought from open market before 2 months of the occurrence of the disease and kept together with other animals in the same house. Upon detailed physical and clinical examination, the bull was rubbing against a pole in the clinic, loss of body weight, anemia, alopecia mainly in the neck region and opening of mouth during itching.  During the detail clinical examination an aggregation small sized blue to black colored lice were found on the neck, face and head region of the animal.  To identify the type of species of lice, sample of skin scraping was taken to Jimma University Veterinary Parasitology laboratory and the species of the parasite were identified with the consultation of Wall and Shearer (2001) veterinary ectoparasites book and found to be Solenoptes capillatus. The bull was treated with a single dose of 1% ivermectin subcutaneously with a dose of 0.2 mg/kg body weight and followed and responded immediately after 3 days.  However; after a week, another bull kept in the same farm near to the infested one was found to be infested with the same parasite species and treated immediately with ivermectin. Following this, the farm was disinfected with diazinon and became free of lice. Lastly, this case report demonstrates that lice are among the most important health constraints of cattle in any part of the tropical countries like Ethiopia leading to important economic losses so attention should be given during diagnosis not to overlook the case and control interventions on animal and farm level should be practiced.

Keywords: Bull; Pediculosis; Case report; Jimma University