Prevalence of gastrointestinal parasitic infection in cows and buffaloes in Lower Dir, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Abstract

Gastrointestinal (GI) Parasitic infection is a hot issue for cattle management. There is variation of GI parasites effects in sex, age of cattle, drinking water condition, nutrition, and severity of infection. Studies on prevalence of GI parasites among cattle population in Dir Lower are lacking. A total of 40 farms were selected randomly in six tehsil namely Tehsil Adenzai, Tehsil Timergara, Tehsil Balambat, Tehsil Munda,Tehsil Lalqala, Tehsil Khall. Freshly cattle fecal samples were collected randomly from the selected farms during March 2018 till December 2018. Out of 314 buffaloes and cattle examined 58.59% (184/314) were positive for eggs, cyst/oocyst of one or more species of GI Parasites. The prevalence of parasitic infection was higher in Buffaloes 63.55% (75/118) as compared to Cow 55.61% (109/196) but the difference was not significant (p>0.05) Entamoeba,spp, Moniezia spp, Haemonchus spp and Coccidian spp were found in this study. The non-treated animals indicated the highest percentage of infection in cow 57.71% (101/175) and buffalo 68.13% (62/91).GI parasite prevalence in female animal were higher female cow 62.58% (87/139) and female buffalo 77.33% (58/75) as compared to male. But the difference is non-significant (p> 0.05) Yearling calves had the lower rate of GI parasitic infection than adults. Future investigations are necessary to evaluate the economic loss due to GI parasites in cattle’s.