Bovine cysticercosis in the Gambia

Unger, F., Münstermann, S., Carayol, D., Marcotty, T. and Geerts, S. 2008. Bovine cysticercosis in the Gambia. Revue d’élevage et de médecine vétérinaire des pays tropicaux 61(1): 15-17.

Surveys were carried out in the slaughterhouses of Abuko and Banjul and on 16 farms involving 391 cattle in the Central River Division of The Gambia. Using conventional meat inspection, 12 (0.75%) out of 1595 slaughter cattle were found infected with cysticerci of Taenia saginata. On-farm screening using an antigen detection ELISA revealed an average within herd seroprevalence of 21.3% (CI95: 13.6; 29.0). Although official reports have not mentioned the occurrence of bovine cysticercosis in The Gambia for the last 10 years, these data clearly show that this zoonosis is present in the country. The discrepancy between the results of both techniques is due to the low sensitivity of classical meat inspection and the high sensitivity of ELISA for detection of circulating antigen.