Abstract

In the Adamawa region, the number one cattle-producing area in Cameroon, there is spacity of reliable data on bovine trypanosomosis and the disease epizootiology but animal breeders attribute huge economic losses to trypanosomosis in the complete absence of laboratory diagnosis. This led to the ugly situation where most sick animals are injected with trypanocides. Blood was collected from 330 zebu cattle in small holder livestock farms in the Mbe Plain and Plateau of the Vina Division of Cameroon to assess the parasitological and seroprevalence rates of bovine trypanosomosis using the Buffy coat technique (BCT) and Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA-antibody). The overall bovine trypanosomosis prevalence rate in both Mbe plain and the plateau was 11.5% when BCT was used and 31.2% with antibody ELISA. In the Mbe plain serological prevalence was an epizootic proportion of 51.5%, being 3.39 times higher than the prevalence rate (15.2%) using BCT. On the Plateau this ratio was 1.49 represented by a serological prevalence rate of 12.1% and a BCT prevalence rate of 8.12%. The parasitemia was relatively low (lower than 5×104 trypanosomes/ml) in both zones. The mean PCV of animals in Mbé Plain (26.22%) was significantly lower than that of animals on the Plateau (30.2%). In the Mbé Plain the mean PCV of ELISA-positive animals (23.71%) was very significantly (p < 0.001) lower than 28.93% for ELISA-negative animals. On the Plateau, ELISA- positive animals had a mean PCV of 29.76% which was not significantly different from that (30.27%) of ELISA-negative animals. The seroprevalence was significantly higher (p < 0.001) in older animals than younger ones in the Mbe plain but not in the plateau. Sex did not influence (p > 0.05) the seroprevalence and the mean PCV in both zones whereas the prevalence with the BCT was significantly higher in male cattle than in female in both Plateau and the Mbe plain (p < 0. 05). The risk of bovine trypanosomosis was higher in the Mbe plain than in the plateau. In both study areas the intensity of animal trypanosomosis varies according to the ecological niches, suggesting that the vectors may be localized in a number of foci. 

Key words: Bovine trypanosomosis, seroprevalence, packed cell volume, Vina-Cameroon,