Anthelmintic Utilisation Practices and Prevalence of Gastrointestinal Helminth Infections in Sheep Kept in the Urban and Peri-urban Areas of Bishoftu Town

Assessment of the anthelmintic (AH) utilisation practices and estimation of the prevalence of gastrointestinal helminth infections in sheep were carried out from November 2010 to April 2011 in urban and peri-urban areas of Bishoftu Town, central Ethiopia. A structured questionnaire was employed to assess the AH utilisation practices in sheep of 310 owners/households, while floatation and sedimentation techniques were used to study the prevalence of helminth infections. Faecal examinations revealed that 53.9 % of sheep harboured gastrointestinal helminth infections with a high frequency due to strongyles (77.3 %). The questionnaire survey revealed that sources of AH for sheep were government and private veterinary clinics for 98.5 % of urban and 65.4 % peri-urban respondents. In peri-urban areas, AH were also purchased from open markets and illegal dealers. Albendazole was the most common (75.5 %) drug used in sheep followed by ivermectin (18.7 %) and tetramisole (5.8 %). The criteria for selecting AH were: prescription by veterinarians (51.6 %), efficacy (31.9 %), price (12.3 %) and arbitrary reasons (4.2 %). Treatment frequency was minimal with 51.3, 32.3 and 15.8 % of the owners treating their sheep once, twice and less than once per year, respectively. Treatments mainly depended on manifestations of general (45.8 %) and digestive (23.3 %) symptoms. Irrespective of the body weight of the sheep, albendazole was the only drug reported to be given at half bolus/sheep (14.1 %). Owing to this practice, albendazole faces the risk of reduced efficacy or AH resistance due to its wide spread utilisation, handling by untrained personnel and suspected underdosage, which altogether support the perception of sheep owners on its lower effect on the performance of treated sheep.