PREVALENCE AND DEGREE OF INFECTION OF TOXOCARIASIS IN DAIRY CALVES (HOLSTEIN FRIESIAN) WITH SEVERAL AGE GROUPS

Background: Worm infection is one of the most common diseases affecting livestock, one of those diseases is Toxocara vitulorum. Infection can cause diarrhea, reduced productivity, intestinal and bile obstruction, to death in livestock. However, this disease is often ignored by farmers. Observing from an economic perspective, this disease results in very high losses for farmers. Objective: This study aimed to determine the effect of dairy calves age on the prevalence of toxocariasis and determine the effect of different degrees of toxocariasis infection on dairy calves (Holstein Friesian). Methods: This study used a descriptive laboratory method. The samples studied were 120 stool or feces samples of calves aged 0-6 months. The number of samples in each age group of 0-2 months, 2-4 months and 4-6 months were 40 samples. The independent variable of this study was the age of dairy calves. The dependent variables were the prevalence and degree of toxocariasis infection. Whereas, the control variables were feed and cattle nation. Results: From 120 samples studied, 5 feces samples were positively infected with T. vitulorum. From 5 samples that were positively infected, 4 of them came from the age group of 0-2 months and the other 1 from the age group of 2-4 months. Whereas, in the 4-6 month age group all negative samples were from T. vitulorum infection. The mean value of infection rates in the 0-2 month age group was 4.219, in the 2-4 month age group was 1.066 and in the 4-6 month age group was 0.707. Conclusion: The prevalence of toxocariasis and the degree of toxocariasis infection based on the most influential age differences were at the age of 0-2 months.