The Prevalence of Gastrointestinal Protozoa Infection in Pigs in Umuahia South, Abia State Nigeria
Abstract
Pig production plays a major role in boosting the economy inmost regions of the world by serving as a source of income and satisfying the growing demand for livestock and livestock products. However, the challenges affecting pig production are enormous, such as gastrointestinal parasitism in the form of protozoan infection, which often is not diagnosed early until damage is done, reducing economic gains and resulting in losses. A cross-sectional study of six small-scale pig farms in Umuahia South LGA, with the objective of determining the prevalence of gastrointestinal protozoans of the pigs was undertaken. A total of 116 pigs were randomly selected comprising of 29 pigs categorized as young less than 6 months and 87 pigs as adult aged above 6 months, 50 male and 66 female, 96 pigs raised intensively and 20 pigs reared under extensive management was sampled from July to September for protozoan infection. Faecal samples were obtained from pigs of various ages, sexes, and those raised under intensive and extensive farm systems and analyzed in the laboratory using standard techniques. The results of the frequency of protozoan infection were calculated and presented as percentages. Four different types of protozoans were found to infect pigs in Umuahia South LGA of Abia State, namely: Cryptosporidium spp. (33.6%), Balantidium spp. (34.5%), Entamoeba spp. (14.7%) and Giardia spp. (42.2%). The occurrence of the various protozoan parasites was higher in females, adult and intensively reared pigs when compared with males, young and extensively reared pigs. These protozoan parasites are capable of causing considerable loss in pig production and can cause infection in humans. Therefore, farmers in the study area should be sensitized on the herd health programmes and practice good hygienic measures to reduce the incidence of gastrointestinal protozoa in pig herds.
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Introduction
Pigs (Sus Scrofa Domesticus) generally referred to as swine is one of the abundant livestock species raised in Nigeria, most especially in the middle-belt and southern part of the country accounting for about nine million pigs out of the fourteen million pigs reared in the West African sub-region (Bernard et al., 2021). Pigs are reared primarily as a source of animal protein such as ham, pork, bacon and gammon and other meat products, raw materials for biomedical products and manure (Ejinaka and Onyali, 2020; Bernard et al., 2021). Pig production is among the fastest growing sectors in the livestock industry, and it is projected to continue rapidly growing in the years to come with the thought of bridging the deficiency in animal-derived protein and as a useful tool to fight poverty in low-and middle-income countries (Nwachukwu and Udegbunam, 2020). Pigs are inexpensive to raise, making them a popular and more acceptable choice among farmers with limited resources especially in the rural communities (Adesehinwa et al., 2024). The choice of pig rearing over other food-producing animals such as ruminants is due to their polytocous nature, high feed conversion efficiency, early maturation rate, short gestation duration, and are very hardy in tolerating less-than-ideal tropical environmental conditions (Bernard et al., 2021). Various constraints affect the sustainable development of the swine industry, with diseases caused by gastrointestinal parasites being the most common (Unanam and Lekko, 2023). Pigs are known to harbor parasites, some of which are zoonotic, including helminths and protozoans which can negatively impact feed conversion, growth rate, and weight gain and can result in condemnation of organs following slaughter and huge financial losses (Ajibo et al., 2020). Certain parasites of pigs with the potential to affect humans become major public health issues as there have been outbreaks of waterborne diseases reportedly caused by Giardialamblia and Cryptosporidium spp. (Abiola et al., 2018).
Internal parasites of pigs are widespread globally and its occurrence is of great importance most especially in Nigeria with favorable climatic conditions that allows for easy transmission of these parasites in pigs (Ejinaka and Onyali, 2020). There are several studies that have been carried out indifferent parts of Nigeria on the gastrointestinal parasites of pigs focusing on nematodes (helminths) and cestodes (tapeworms) with less emphasis on protozoans of pigs; Fabiyi (1979) in Jos reported 15 helminth species in pigs, and Sowemimo et al. (2012) identified 5 species of parasites from pigs in Ibadan. Hence, there is paucity of information on the gastrointestinal protozoans affecting pigs, especially in the study area. This study aims to provide epidemiological data on the prevalence and intensity of protozoans affecting pigs in Umuahia South, Abia State, Nigeria.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the protozoan type observed in this study are zoonotic and they are also capable of causing adverse health conditions in pig herd. Therefore, it is advocated that regular monitoring of pig farms by veterinarians to screen faeces for protozoan parasites and administration of appropriate anthelminthic be done to reduce the burden of parasites in pig farms. Farmers should also be encouraged to attend trainings on the importance of herd health management, adopt modern day practices for better productivity in order to decrease the burden of gastrointestinal protozoa infection of pigs. This study also shows that protozoan parasites capable of being implicated in zoonotic infection of humans either via water or food can be found in faecal samples of pigs thus, creates a burden on public health. In Abia State where pork is widely consumed, further studies on investigation and public health assessment of the impact of these zoonotic parasites should be carried out and more public awareness raised towards the prevention of protozoan infection in humans.
