CORRELATIONS BETWEEN BODY WEIGHT, HEAMOGLOBIN, PACKED CELL VOLUME AND FECAL EGG COUNT OF SHEEP IN GOMBE STATE

Abstract

Correlations between body weight, heamoglobin concentration, packed cell volume and fecal egg count of sheep in Gombe State, Nigeria were assessed between March and October, 2017. Three hundred faecal and blood samples comprising 130 Yankasa, 73 Balami and 97 Uda breeds were collected from households, sheep and goats markets and abattoir. The feacal samples were subsequently processed for gastro-intestinal parasite presence and identification using floatation method as described by Soulsby and faecal egg counts using the Mc Master Slide Technique while blood samples were analysed for some haematological parameters such as Packed Cell Volume (PCV) and Haemoglobin Concentration (HbC). Out of the 300 samples examined, 76.70% were positive while 23.30% were negative. Six genera of parasites were observed namely; Coccidia, Haemonchus, Trichuris, Fasciola, and Oesophagostomun. Coccidia infection (33.30%) was the most predominant while Fasciola and Haemonchus (2.50% each) were least. Infection varied significantly (P< 0.05) with breed with overall prevalence of 70.80, 74.00 and 86.60% for Yankasa, Balami and Uda respectively. Of the four quantitative factors considered; namely body weight (Bwt), PCV, HbC and FEC only Bwt and FEC had significant influence (P<0.001) on breed of sheep. Correlation coefficient was highest (0.99) between HbC and PCV and lowest between Bwt and FEC. Similarly, the correlations between Bwt and HbC and, Bwt and PCV were low while between Bwt and FEC was negative (-0,073, P < 0.05). Blood parameters needed to be monitored for health stability and gastrointestinal parasite infection must be appropriately controlled to ensure adequate health and nutritional status of sheep.