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Application of Body Condition Scorings to Effective Detection of African Trypanosomiasis in Camels and Cattle

Trypanosomiasis is a parasitic disease that is transmitted by tsetse flies. However, because of the limitation of conventional parasitological methods, conclusive epidemiological inferences on trypanosomiasis is challenging, leaving a high proportions of the disease to remain undetected which leads to difficulty in monitoring and strategic control. The present study therefore, employed the use of molecular methods to detect trypanosomes in trade camels and cattle, along line analysis of their body condition scores (BCS). Results of the study indicated that, all the infected camels and majority of the infected cattle had poor BCS. The average packed cell volume (PCV) of infected animals was lower than the average PCV of uninfected animals. Findings from this study revealed an infection rate of 48.75% with the most frequently encountered species being Trypanosoma vivax (18.75%), followed by T. brucei (12.50%), T. congolense (8.75%), T. evansi (6.25%) and mixed infection involving T. brucei and T. congolense (2.50%). Conclusively, animals with poor BCS are more susceptible suggesting that, the use of BCS may improve the quality of evaluation of trypanosomiasis in animals, especially for large scale epidemiological study.