Biswa Ranjan Maharana

Important hemoprotozoan diseases of livestock: challenges in current diagnostics and therapeutics: an update.

Hemoprotozoan parasites pose a serious threat to the livestock population in terms of mortality, reduced milk yield and lowered draft power. Diagnosis of these diseases often poses a challenging task. Needless to say that impact of disease in health and productivity is huge though a fair economic assessment on the quantum of economic loss associated is yet to be worked out from India. The diagnosis of hemoprotozoan infections largely depends on various laboratory-based diagnostic methods as the clinical manifestations are often inconspicuous and non-specific. Traditional diagnostic methods rely on microscopical demonstration of infective stages in blood or tissue fluids. However, it is laborious, lesser sensitive, and cannot differentiate between morphologically similar organisms. Recent development in the technologies has opened new avenues for improvement in the accurate diagnosis of parasitic infections. Serological tests are simple, fast but lack specificity. With advent of molecular techniques, as DNA hybridization assays, polymerase chain reaction and its modifications ensure the detection of infection in the latent phase of the disease. Nucleic acid-based assays are highly sensitive, free from immunocompetence and can differentiate between morphologically similar parasites. With the advent of newer diagnostics complemented with traditional ones will be of huge help for targeted selective treatment with better chemotherapeutic agents.

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 42xa0% (nxa0=xa0302) faecal samples from cattle and 36xa0% (nxa0=xa0114) samples from buffaloes were positive for gastrointestinal (GI) parasitic infections. Both cattle (14.57xa0%) and buffalo (15.79xa0%) had the highest incidence of Buxtonella sulcata, respectively. The overall incidence of GI parasitic infections in young animals (below 1xa0year) was higher followed by older (more than 5xa0years) and adult animals (1–5xa0years) and the difference was statistically significant (pxa0<xa00.05). Non descriptive breeds of bovines showed more parasitic infections than pure breeds, the difference being statistically non-significant (pxa0>xa00.05). Season wise GI parasitic infections were recorded to be non-significantly (pxa0>xa00.05) higher in monsoon (48.38xa0%) followed by summer (39xa0%) and winter (34.61xa0%) in cattle. There was no significant variation of GI infections in buffaloes in relation to season though highest prevalence was documented in monsoon (44.89xa0%) followed by winter (35.71xa0%) and summer (24.32xa0%). Similarly, sex wise females recorded higher infection rates than males in bovines and the difference being statistically non-significant (pxa0>xa00.05).

Pseudomalaria in a domestic pigeon: a case report

Microscopic examination of thin blood smear of a domestic pigeon brought to Teaching Veterinary Clinical Complex, Junagadh, Gujarat revealed mature and immature halter shaped gametocytes of Haemoproteus columbae encircling the nucleated erythrocytes. The disease was diagnosed as acute infection of pigeon malaria more notably known as pseudomalaria. The parasitic infection was further confirmed by polymerase chain reaction assay targeting the Cytochrome b (cyt b) gene fragment amplifying 207 base pair (bp) fragment. Pseudolynchia canariensis, the vector for H. columbae was also recovered from underneath the feathers of the affected pigeon.