Author(s)

Justine Daudi Maganira, Norbet Ignas Hepelwa, Beda John Mwang’onde

Department of Biosciences, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro, Tanzania.

Small-scale subsistence farmers keep over 80% of the pigs in Tanzania as a backyard activity in mixed agro-ecological farming systems under unhygienic conditions that risk persistency of zoonoses including Taenia solium cysticercosis. Pig production and demand for pork has tremendously increased in Tanzanian townships and major cities. Rural areas are the main sources of pigs and pork and that the business is jeopardized by the presence of porcine cysticercosis (PC). Ludewa district is one of the PC unsurveyed sources of pork in townships and cities in Tanzania. The aim of this study was to assess the status of PC in Ludewa district, Tanzania. Auricular venous blood samples were collected from pigs in households for seroprevalence analysis of PC. In this study, 10.07% (95% C.I. 06.86% - 14.47%) of the collected 268 serum samples tested positive in the cysticercosis antigen enzyme-linked immune-sorbent (Ag ELISA) assay. PC infection rate was 10.71% (n = 24) in adult pigs and 6.82% (n = 3) in piglets. PC infection between adult pigs and piglets was not statistically significant (OR = 0.6108; 95% C.I. 0.1125 - 2.1575), p = 0.5877). The highest and lowest number of PC positive cases were detected in Mapogoro (n = 16, 13.91%, 95% C.I. 8.41 - 21.91) and Ludewa Mjini (n = 6, 6.67%, 95% C.I. 2.74 - 14.50) villages respectively. The Chi-Square test indicated no significant statistical difference in the status of PC infection between the three villages (p = 0.1881) involved in this study. PC prevalence in the study area indicates the presence of T. solium tapeworm human carriers and environmental contamination by T. solium eggs. This is the first survey to reveal the prevalence of PC in Ludewa district and therefore calls for further studies on the magnitude, economic and public health impacts of taeniasis and cysticercosis in the human population. The result of this study is also important in the determination of effective control measures of cysticercosis.

Porcine Cysticercosis, Taenia solium, Seroprevalence, Ludewa, Njombe, Tanzania

Maganira, J. , Hepelwa, N. and Mwang’onde, B. (2018) Seroprevalence of Porcine Cysticercosis in Ludewa District, Njombe, Tanzania. Advances in Infectious Diseases, 8, 151-161. doi: 10.4236/aid.2018.83014.