Response of Nkedi Zebu and Ankole cattle to tick infestation and natural tick-borne, helminth and trypanosome infections in Uganda

A cross-sectional study was conducted in Soroti district of Uganda to establish important traits of Nkedi Zebu and Ankole cattle regarding their production performance responses to natural infections of trypanosomes, gastrointestinal nematodes, Theileria parva, Babesia bigemina, Anaplasma marginale and tick infestations. Over four visits between October 2006 to August 2007, tick counts were performed and blood, faecal samples and sera were collected from the Nkedi Zebu (295) and Ankole (165) cattle from 86 herds in six locations per visit. Low parasitological prevalence of trypanosome infection (< 6%) and high prevalence of gastrointestinal nematode infections (> 30%) with low faecal egg counts (110-300 eggs per gramme (EPG)) were observed in the Nkedi Zebu and Ankole cattle. Both breeds had high, moderate and low mean counts of Rhipicephalus appendiculatus (18.0-24.0), Rhipecephalus (Boophilus) decoloratus (3.6-10.3) and Amblyomma variegatum ticks (1.7-4.3), respectively. In addition, both breeds had similar mean packed cell volumes (26.4-31.2) and a similar percentage of animals were anaemic (14.5-36.6%). The Nkedi Zebu cattle further had higher mean optical density (OD) values for antibodies against T. parva (1.093-1.445) and A. marginale infections (0.573-0.583), and significantly (P < 0.001) higher mean OD values of antibodies against B. bigemina infections (1.07-2.175) than the Ankole cattle: T. parva (1.030-1.302); A. marginale (0.442-0.603) and B. bigemina infections (0.863-2.154). The Ankole cows produced significantly more (P < 0.001) milk per day (2.68 L) than the Nkedi Zebu cows (1.98 L), and the Ankole oxen had significantly higher (P < 0.05) draught power output (2.57 days/acre) than the Nkedi Zebu oxen (2.93 days/acre). Liveweights of calves aged 0-12 months of both breeds were comparable, suggesting that the Nkedi Zebu and Ankole cattle under similar disease challenge exhibited similar growth rates. In conclusion, the Nkedi Zebu cattle seem to possess a higher degree of disease resistance against endemic parasitic diseases, while the Ankole cattle seem to possess a moderate degree of disease resistance coupled with a moderate production potential.