Natural Infection with Fasciola hepatica in Host-Snails and Cattle in Ten Dairy Farms from a Western Municipality in Cuba

Abstract

Fasciolosis is a foodborne trematodosis affecting many cattle farms in Cuba. Ten dairy farms in western Cuba were studied to assess the prevalence in both intermediate and definitive hosts. A single stool sample from 455 dairy cows was taken and studied. The animals were randomly selected and the samples were kept at -20oC until infection was determined. Detection of the Fasciola hepatica infection was carried out using a noncommercial sandwich-ELISA called FasciDIG®. Results showed that 146 samples were positive for F. hepatica (32.09%) with every farm testing positive for F. hepatica infection, while prevalence ranged from 9.5% to 84% among farms. It was also possible to detect the presence of the two species of intermediate hosts of this trematode in Cuba, Galba cubensis and Pseudosuccinea columella. Main attention must be given to bovine prevalence found in this study in order to prevent eventual human outbreaks of this disease.