Descriptive Prevalence of Gastrointestinal Parasites in Goats from Small Farms in Bangkok and Vicinity and the Associated Risk Factors

Abstract

The objectives of this preliminary study were to assess the prevalence of gastrointestinal parasites in goats from sixteen (n=16) selected small farms around Bangkok and vicinity, and in addition, to provide the infection characterization based on parasite egg’s morphology in this central region of Thailand. A total of 185 goats (dairy and meat) aged between 6 to 30 months were involved in this study. Fresh fecal samples were collected directly from goats’ rectum during the sampling period from September to October 2014. Fecal samples were examined for eggs and cysts of parasites byfloatation method with saturated salt solution and counted by Modified McMaster technique. Total flock prevalence for this sampling area was 100% with 68.65% individual prevalence. From total animal, 29.73% were involved with mixed infection and 28.65% and 10.27% were infected with single type of parasites; helminth and protozoa, respectively. The prevalence according to the species based on egg’s morphology were; nematodes including strongyles group (52.43%) and Strongyloides papillosus (16.76%), cestodes including Moniezia expansa (5.41%) and protozoa including Giardia spp. cyst (5.95%), Entamoeba spp. cyst (24.32%) and unsporulated coccidian oocyst, Eimeria spp. (41.08%). The present study has confirmed the infection of gastrointestinal parasites in Bangkok and vicinity with strongyle group as a dominant species. There were also two significant risk factors related to infection; goats’ gender and type of goat reared in farms (P<0.05).