Abstract
Background and Aim: Hydatidosis is caused by the larval stage of Echinococcus granulosus. It is the most important zoonotic parasite. Dogs are the main definitive hosts, livestock (cattle, buffalo, goat, and sheep) are the intermediate hosts of Echinococcus granulosus, and humans are accidental hosts.
Materials and Methods: Retrospective and cross-sectional studies were conducted to determine the prevalence of bovine hydatidosis and its economic losses in debretabor municipal abattoirs from July to December 2023 and from January to April 2024 April respectively. A total of 384 cattle were examined by the routine activities of ante-mortem and postmortem examination.
Results: The present finding revealed that the overall bovine hydatidosis prevalence was 43.4%. Similarly, the prevalence of the parasite in male and local breed animals was 93.0% (357/384), and 81.0% (311/384) as compared to females and crossbreed animals respectively. Female animals with sterility, reproductive problems, or an emergency case certificate were permitted to be slaughtered in the abattoir. Bivariable and multivariable logistic regression analysis was made to identify the association between factors and infectivity with hydatidosis. Variables as origin, age, and body condition were significantly associated with hydatidosis infection at 95% CI (1.603±3.913, p-value= 0.000), (0.227±0.623, p-value =0.000) and (1.157±3.826, p-value = 0.015) respectively. There was no significant difference between other variables. The infection and distribution of hydatid cysts were different in different organs. The higher rate of infection and distribution were found in the lung (21.3%), liver (13.2%), and both in lung and liver (5.2%) respectively while the infection rates were very low in the spleen (2.3%), kidney (0.8%), and heart (0.5%).
Conclusion: The condemned organ multiplied by the current average price of the organ collected from the customers indicated that there was significant financial loss. The total economic loss of condemned organ due to hydatidosis in the study area was determined by adding direct total economic loss (127,978.636 ETB or 2245.239 USD$) and indirect total economic loss (6,550,596.36 ETB or 114922.743 USD$). The overall financial loss due to hydatid cyst was 6,678,574.996 ETB or 117,167.96491 USD$ (1 USD$ =57 ETB).

Key words: Abattoir, Bovine, Debre Tabor, Economic loss, Hydatidosis, and Prevalence