Response of Nkedi Zebu and Ankole cattle to tick infestation and natural tick-borne, helminth and trypanosome infections in Uganda
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Date
2011
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Tropical animal health and production
Abstract
A cross-sectional study was conducted in Soroti
district of Uganda to establish important traits of Nkedi
Zebu and Ankole cattle regarding their production performance
responses to natural infections of trypanosomes,
gastrointestinal nematodes, Theileria parva, Babesia bigemina,
Anaplasma marginale and tick infestations. Over
four visits between October 2006 to August 2007, tick
counts were performed and blood, faecal samples and sera
were collected from the Nkedi Zebu (295) and Ankole
(165) cattle from 86 herds in six locations per visit. Low
parasitological prevalence of trypanosome infection (<6%)
and high prevalence of gastrointestinal nematode infections
(>30%) with low faecal egg counts (110–300 eggs per
gramme (EPG)) were observed in the Nkedi Zebu and
Ankole cattle. Both breeds had high, moderate and low
mean counts of Rhipicephalus appendiculatus (18.0–24.0),
Rhipecephalus (Boophilus) decoloratus (3.6–10.3) and
Amblyomma variegatum ticks (1.7–4.3), respectively. In
addition, both breeds had similar mean packed cell volumes
(26.4–31.2) and a similar percentage of animals were
anaemic (14.5–36.6%). The Nkedi Zebu cattle further had
higher mean optical density (OD) values for antibodies
against T. parva (1.093–1.445) and A. marginale infections
(0.573–0.583), and significantly (P<0.001) higher mean
OD values of antibodies against B. bigemina infections
(1.07–2.175) than the Ankole cattle: T. parva (1.030–
1.302); A. marginale (0.442–0.603) and B. bigemina
infections (0.863–2.154). The Ankole cows produced
significantly more (P<0.001) milk per day (2.68 L) than
the Nkedi Zebu cows (1.98 L), and the Ankole oxen had
significantly higher (P<0.05) draught power output
(2.57 days/acre) than the Nkedi Zebu oxen (2.93 days/
acre). Liveweights of calves aged 0–12 months of both
breeds were comparable, suggesting that the Nkedi Zebu
and Ankole cattle under similar disease challenge
exhibited similar growth rates. In conclusion, the Nkedi
Zebu cattle seem to possess a higher degree of disease
resistance against endemic parasitic diseases, while the
Ankole cattle seem to possess a moderate degree of
disease resistance coupled with a moderate production
potential.
Description
Keywords
Cattle, Breed, Disease response, Production performance, Uganda
Citation
Magona, J. W., Walubengo, J., & Kabi, F. (2011). Response of Nkedi Zebu and Ankole cattle to tick infestation and natural tick-borne, helminth and trypanosome infections in Uganda. Tropical animal health and production, 43(5), 1019-1033. DOI 10.1007/s11250-011-9801-9