Vol. 10, Special Issue 8 (2021)

Author(s):
S Subapriya, NR Senthil, B Gowri, D Chandrasekaran, A Gopalakrishnan, CS Arunaman, P Selvaraj and S Vairamuthu

Abstract:
The present study was undertaken to study the prevalence of haemoprotozoans in cattle. A total of 6000 blood samples were examined for the presence of different haemoprotozoan parasites by Leishman-Giemsa staining, out of which 1899 cattle were found positive for either one or more haemoprotozoans accounting to a prevalence rate of 31.65%. Anaplasma marginale was found to be most predominant haemoprotozoan 1298(68.35%) followed by Theileria annulata 516(27.17%), Babesia bigemina 77(4.05%), Trypanosoma evansi 28(1.47% %), Microfilaria 12(0.63%), Ehrlichia bovis 8(0.42%) and Babesia bovis 4(0.21%). Mixed infection was observed in 44(2.31%) cattle. The highest number of cases were recorded in Jersey cross 1249(65.77%) followed by Holstein Friesian cross 321(16.90%) and indigenous cattle 329(17.32%). Of the cases recorded, 56(2.95%) were males and 1843(97.05%) were females. The highest prevalence of haemoprotozoans was observed in female cattle were 9.22% in cattle of 1st parity, 25.17% in 2nd parity, 27.54% in 3rd parity, 17.06% in 4th parity, 10.16% in 5th parity, 2.16% in aged cattle more than 5th parity and 5.74% in cattle aged less than 1 year. In males, the highest incidence was observed in cattle belonging to the age group of 1.95% in young male cattle less than one year, 0.47% in 1 to 3 years age group, 0,21% in 3-5 years and 0.16% each in 5-8 years and more than 8 years old male cattle. Season wise, highest prevalence was observed in monsoon season 791(41.65%), followed by summer 576(30.33%) and post monsoon 532(28.01%) season.