Abstract:
Background: Bovine trypanosomosis remains a major barrier to livestock productivity, agricultural
progress, and socioeconomic development in Ethiopia’s large tsetse belt regions, threatening 70
million cattle. Therefore, this review examined published literature from the last ten years to
estimate the pooled prevalence, risk factors, and vector density of bovine trypanosomosis. This
systematic review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-
Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, using PubMed, Web of Science, HINARI, Google, and Google
Scholar. Pooled prevalence and risk factors were calculated with a random effects model in R
software, with a 95 % confidence interval. This meta-analysis included research published after
2015 on trypanosomosis in Ethiopian cattle, where Trypanosoma was classified at least to the
genus level. Studies on other species, lacking specific prevalence data and published before 2015
were excluded.
Results: A total of 26 articles were included in this meta-analysis. The overall pooled proportion
of bovine Trypanosomosis cases was 9 % (95 % CI: 8–9 %). Considerable heterogeneity was
observed across the included studies (I2 = 94 %; P < 0.01). The highest pooled prevalence of
trypanosomosis was reported in Amhara and Oromia (8 %), followed by Benishangul Gumuz
(BSGR) (7 %). Based on the subspecies analysis, the highest pooled proportion was 65 % (95 % CI:
58 %–71 %) for T. congolense (I2 = 81 %: p = 0.01), followed by 32 % for T. vivax (I2 = 60 %: P =
0.61) and 19 % for T. brucei (95 % CI: 7 %–41 %). Among the risk factors, poor body condition,
black coat color, and packed cell volume (PCV) were found to be significant for the development
of this disease. Black-coated animals were 2.36 and 3.48 times more susceptible to trypanosomosis
than red- and white-coated animals, respectively. According to the pooled odds ratio, animals
in poor body condition were 2.82 times more likely to have bovine trypanosomosis.
Animals infected with Trypanosoma were 18 times more likely to have a lower packed cell volume
(PCV) compared to non-infected animals. The study found that Tsetse flies were responsible for
72.32 % of bovine trypanosomosis cases, with Glossina pallidipes and Glossina tachinoides being the
most common species. The remaining 27.68 % were due to other biting insects. The study
highlights the need for science-based risk mitigation strategies to control Trypanosoma infections
