Prevalence and risk factors for Tritrichomonas foetus Infection in cattle from Bauchi State, Nigeria

Abstract

Tritrichomonas foetus infection is one of the sexually transmitted infections that causes reproductive losses among cattle livestock globally. Thus, the infection has the effect of reducing productivity in livestock. There is a general paucity of information regarding the infection in Nigeria because less attention has been focused on it. Therefore, a survey was conducted to determine the prevalence and risk factors for Tritrichomonas foetus infection in cattle from Bauchi State of Nigeria. To achieve these, a total of 303 cattle were sampled from four different farms between February - May, 2025. Preputial smegma and vaginal mucus samples were collected from cattle aged from 2 and above years. In addition, a structured questionnaire was administered to 200 herders in the four farms and its environs.  The samples were examined using wet and dry mount techniques. The data were analysed using prevalence and frequency descriptive statistics at 95% confidence interval aided by SPSS. No bovine T. foetus infections were detected, indicating that the maximal prevalence presumably missed were about 3.49% for males, 1.39% for females and 0.99% overall. Distribution of management practices revealed risk factors such as method of breeding by natural service with a whole proportion of 100%, method of husbandry on free-range category showed an overwhelming proportion of 98.5%, breeding bulls acquired through purchase recorded 64.5%, age of breeding bull (>3 years) had 63% while number of bulls (>20) in herd revealed 57% accordingly. These management practice indices are generally high and suggests future risk of its infectivity. Therefore, there is need for targeted improve screening and biosecurity programs to mitigate future occurrence of this infection. It is further recommended that future surveys using other more sensitive diagnostic tests like culture (InPouch TF) and PCR molecular technique across adequately sampled region is necessary so that a true status of the infection can be detected even in traces.