Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2009
An account is given of the results of preliminary studies of the worm-burden of goats and sheep in Ghana, West Africa, based on fortnightly counts of nematode eggs in their faeces over a period of three years, 1954 to 1956, inclusive. Only eggs of nematodesand Moniezia expansa were encountered apart from an occasional egg of Schistosoma sp., probably S. bovis, in two sheep. Four centres were involved in these investigations differing appreciably in regard to the amount and distribution of the rainfall. It would seem from the results obtained that:—
There are in the drier regions two distinct periods in the year when worm-egg production in goats and sheep reaches a high level compared with that at other times of the year, a high peak of production in June, sometimes a month either earlier or later, and a slight peak in November or December.
There are seasonal variations in the forest belt regions but here the peaks of egg-production are less evident and more irregular in respect to the time of their occurrences in different years.