| dc.description.abstract | This study was undertaken to describe the prevalence and risk factors associated with occurrence of
Eimeria, Cryptosporidia, Strongyloides and Giardia infections in calves in Mukurwe-ini District,
Nyeri County. Mukurwe-ini District is one of the high agricultural potential areas in Kenya for dairy
production, mainly among smallholder farms.
A total of 112 newborn calves (63 males and 49 females) on 111 farms (1 farm had twins) who were
members of Wakulima Dairy Ltd. were purposively selected for the study. They were followed up to
2 months of age between June 2013 and August 2013. A pre-tested questionnaire was used to collect
data on the calf management practices in the 11 1 selected farms. On the first visit to the farm (within
7 days of birth of the calf), blood samples were collected from the jugular vein so as to assess the
level of maternal immunity acquired by the calf, by testing for serum total protein and selenium. At
4 and 6 weeks of age, the fecal samples from the calves were collected to assess the presence of
Cryptosporidia, Eimeria, Giardia, Strongyloides and other helminth eggs. Univariate regression was
used to assess the association between each of the household and calf management factors and the
occurrence of diarrhea (regardless of cause), Cryptosporidia, Eimeria, and Strongyloides infections.
Factors that had a p value ≤ 0.20 were placed in a multivariate logistic regression model. Backward
elimination was used to drop those factors that were not significant from the multivariate logistic
model. Only factors with p value of ≤ 0.05 were considered significant and were left in the final
model. Linear regression was used to assess association between the same household and calf
management factors and average daily weight gain of the calves.
The prevalence of the fecal parasites were 42.7%, 13.6%, 5.4% and (0%) for Eimeria,
Cryptosporidia, Strongyloides and for Giardia, respectively. The prevalence of the parasites was not
significantly different at 4 and 6 weeks of age. Thirty-seven percent of the calves experienced
diarrhea at least once during the two-month study period. However, there was no significant
association between the occurrence of Eimeria, Cryptosporidia and Strongyloides infections and
diarrhea.
Logistic regression showed that low serum protein levels (p=0.02) and (p=0.01) was positively
associated with Eimeria and Cryptosporidia infection respectively. Lack of supervision of birth
(p=0.02), low serum total protein (p<0.01) and longer membership duration at Wakulima Dairy Ltd.
(p<0.01) were positively associated with diarrhea incidence risk.
Linear regression showed that poor calf pen hygiene (p<0.01), feeding less than 5 liters of milk per
day (p<0.01) and Eimeria infection negatively affected average daily weight gain of the calves. Due
to the small number of cases of Strongyloides infection (n=6), regression analyses were
uninformative.
It is recommended that education to farmers be provided, on rearing of calves and especially proper
colostrum management. Additionally, assessment of the prevalence of these parasites during
different seasons and determination of more risk factors, especially those associated with zoonotic
potential, will be useful. | en_US |
