An animal was recorded as infected with a gastrointestinal
parasite if at least one egg, oocyst, cyst or trophozoite was
found in the faecal smear. It was also identified as positive
if at least one extracellular parasite or intracellular parasite
was detected in the thin blood smear. The overall
prevalence rate of cattle was calculated and expressed as
a percentage using the following equation: prevalence =
(number of cases/number of animal tested)×100. Where
required, statistical analyses were conducted using Chi-
square test with SigmaStat Software (version 2.0, Jandel
Scientific Software Corporation, CA, USA 1995) to
determine whether the difference rate among groups of
the cattle in the villages was statistically significant