Emmanuel H., Elihu, A., Midau, A., Buba, Z.M and John M.
Abstract
Study on the prevalence of gastrointestinal parasites of cane rat (Thryonomys swinderianus) in Gyawana ecosystem, Lamurde Local Government Area, Adamawa State was carried out to determine the prevalence of gastrointestinal parasite of cane rat (T. swinderianus) and to compare the prevalence of gastrointestinal parasite by sex. A total of sixty (60) male and female cane rats (T. swinderianus) thirty (30) male and thirty (30) females were trapped from Gyawana ecosystem (sugar cane farm) using mouse glue trap. The cane rats (T. swinderianus) were sacrificed with chloroform, then dissected and the gastrointestinal samples were obtained and processed. Following direct smear method for fecal examination was performed and stool specimen was processed following a formal-ether standing operation procedure. The gastrointestinal parasites were identified on the basis of morphological characteristics. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare the percentage of various gastrointestinal parasites of cane rat (T. swinderianus) during the period of study. Chi-square was also used to test for the differences by gender at P> 0.05. The result reveals seven different species of gastrointestinal parasites (Girdia species, Ascaris species, Strongyloides species, Coccidia species, Ancylostoma species, Entamoeba species and Trachuris species) were observed in the gastro intestine of cane rat (T. swinderianus). Ascaris species has the highest prevalence of gastrointestinal parasites 27 frequency, followed by Ancylostoma species with 19 frequency and the least is Trachuris species with 3 frequency. Thus the prevalence of gastrointestinal parasites of cane rat (T. swinderianus) in the study area, are in this order of Ascaris sp.>Ancylostoma sp.>Entamoeba sp.>Girdia sp.> Strongyloides sp.>Coccidia sp.>Trachuris sp.. There was significant difference between the species of gastrointestinal parasite of cane rat (T. swinderianus) in Gyawana ecosystem at (P < 0.05). The result further shows that, 40(80.00%) of the cane rats were infected with several species of parasite. The males have high prevalence of gastrointestinal parasites with 25(83.33%), compare with female with 23(76.67%) prevalence of gastrointestinal parasites. Nevertheless, there was no significant difference between sex and gastrointestinal infection at (P >0.05). The researchers therefore recommended that consumption of cane rat should be minimized in order to avoid the transmission of these gastrointestinal parasites to human. Further study should be carried out on other organisms that are consumed as bush meat from the study area.