Seasonal variations of EPG Levels in gastro-intestinal parasitic infection in a southeast asian controlled locale: a statistical analysis

Piloting the effectiveness of pig health education in combination with oxfendazole treatment on prevention and/or control of porcine cysticercosis, gastrointestinal parasites, African swine fever and ectoparasites in Angónia District, Mozambique

A community-based intervention combining health education (HE) and treatment of pigs for control of porcine cysticercosis (PC), gastrointestinal (GI) helminths, African swine fever (ASF) and external parasites was tested involving six villages of resource-poor smallholder pig farmers. Farmers and pigs of six rural villages were randomly allocated into group 1 (HE), which served as controls, and group 2 (HE + OFZ) pigs received a single oral dose of 30 mg/kg OFZ. Farmers were trained in pig health, housing and feeding. The proportion of farmers with confined pigs, the adoption rate of the introduced pig pen, the sero-prevalence of PC and ASF, the prevalence and intensity of GI nematodes and the prevalence of ectoparasites were measured at 9, 15 and 24 months after initiation and compared to a baseline survey to seek the effectiveness of the interventions. There was no clear effect of the intervention on the sero-prevalence of PC, but analysis of the rate of change in prevalence between the two groups showed significant effect with the rate of change to lower prevalence in the HE + OFZ group compared to the HE group. Although HE managed to improve the farmer's knowledge in the control and prevention of ASF and ectoparasites, there was no significant reduction in the sero-prevalence of ASF and the prevalence of ectoparasites throughout the two-year period. The reported ineffectiveness of the intervention in this study suggested that more research is needed to develop more effective methods for controlling PC, ASF and pig parasites.

Seasonal incidence of parasitic diseases in bovines of south western Gujarat (Junagadh), India

The current study was conducted to investigate the incidence of parasitic diseases in bovines which were sick and brought at veterinary hospital for treatment. A total of 366 samples were investigated from cattle (n = 175) and buffaloes (n = 191) presented at Teaching Veterinary Clinical Complex (TVCC), Veterinary College, Junagadh, Gujarat during January to December 2014. Examination of Giemsa-stained peripheral blood smears exhibited that 58.6 % of cattle and 41.2 % of buffaloes were infected with haemoparasites comprising Babesia bigemina, Theileria annulata, and Anaplasma marginale @ of 54.0, 3.4 and 1.1 in cattle and 38.8, 1.2 and 1.2 percent in buffaloes, respectively. The incidence of total haemoparasites and B. bigemina infections was significantly higher (p < 0.05) in cattle whereas, incidence of haemoparasites were recorded significantly higher in the month of July to November (i.e., rainy and autumn) in both cattle and buffaloes, respectively (p < 0.01 and p < 0.001). Coprological examination revealed that the overall incidence of gastrointestinal (GI) parasitic infection was 45.5 % in cattle and 43.4 % in buffaloes. The incidence of individual parasite was 11.4, 1.1, 2.3, 4.5, 1.1, 3.4, 2.3 and 19.3 in cattle and 4.7, 0.9, 0.0, 2.8, 0.9, 5.7, 0.0 and 28.3 % in buffaloes for Eimeria spp., Trichuris spp., Toxocara vitulorum, Strongyle, Fasciola spp., amphistomes, Schistosoma indicum and Buxtonella sulcata, respectively which differ insignificantly (p > 0.05). Seasonal prevalence of GI parasites was highest in summer in both cattle and buffaloes, the data being statistically non-significant (p > 0.05). However, the incidence of B. sulcata in both cattle (19.3 %) and buffaloes (28.3 %) was higher in comparisons to other GI parasites. The present investigation emphasized that B. bigemina and B. sulcata are the most important parasites of bovines of this region.

Prevalence of gastrointestinal parasites in bovines in and around Junagadh (Gujarat)

Coprological examination of 416 bovine faecal samples revealed the presence of parasitic stages of Toxocara vitulorum, strongyles, Strongyloides spp., Fasciola spp., amphistomes, coccidia (Eimeria spp. and Cryptosporidium spp.) and Buxtonella sulcata. About 42 % (n = 302) faecal samples from cattle and 36 % (n = 114) samples from buffaloes were positive for gastrointestinal (GI) parasitic infections. Both cattle (14.57 %) and buffalo (15.79 %) had the highest incidence of Buxtonella sulcata, respectively. The overall incidence of GI parasitic infections in young animals (below 1 year) was higher followed by older (more than 5 years) and adult animals (1-5 years) and the difference was statistically significant (p < 0.05). Non descriptive breeds of bovines showed more parasitic infections than pure breeds, the difference being statistically non-significant (p > 0.05). Season wise GI parasitic infections were recorded to be non-significantly (p > 0.05) higher in monsoon (48.38 %) followed by summer (39 %) and winter (34.61 %) in cattle. There was no significant variation of GI infections in buffaloes in relation to season though highest prevalence was documented in monsoon (44.89 %) followed by winter (35.71 %) and summer (24.32 %). Similarly, sex wise females recorded higher infection rates than males in bovines and the difference being statistically non-significant (p > 0.05).