PREVALENCE OF BOVINE AND BUBALINE CYSTICERCOSIS IN PUNJAB, PAKISTAN
M. Saeed1, A. Z. Durrani1, M. A. Khan1, A. Maqbool2, M. Avais1, M. Ijaz1*, I. Ahmad1, M.Younus3, K. Mehmood4, M. Siddiqa3, and S. Naz5
1Department of Clinical Medicine and Surgery, 2Department of Parasitology, 3Department of Pathology, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan
3College of Veterinary and Animal Science Jhang, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences Lahore-Pakistan
4University College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Islamia University of Bahawalpur,
Punjab, Pakistan
5Department of Livestock and Dairy Development Department, Punjab-Pakistan
*Corresponding author’s email: mijaz@uvas.edu.pk
ABSTRACT
Cysticercosis is zoonotic disease infecting cattle and buffaloes having worldwide distribution. Prevalence of cysticercosis is more in underdeveloped countries, and people working in abattoirs are at greater risk to contract infection during handling of slaughtered carcass. The present study was carried out to determine the prevalence of cysticercosis in cattle and buffaloes in province of Punjab, Pakistan. A total of 2400 animals (n=800 animals from each of 3 zones of Punjab where n=400 cattle; n=400 buffaloes) were randomly selected and examined through postmortem at public and private abattoirs. The prevalence of cysticercosisin cattle and buffaloes was 2.92% and 3.17%, respectively. The highest prevalence of cysticercosiswas observed in cattle (3.75%) and buffaloes (3.5%) of North Punjab followed by those of South Punjab and Central Punjab. A higher prevalence of cysticercosis was observed in cattle (4.63%) and buffaloes (5%) at public sector abattoirs than at private sector abattoirs, where prevalence of cysticercosiswas 1.52% and 1.67% in cattle and buffaloes, respectively. The prevalence of cysticercosiswas higher in female cattle (3.75%) and female buffaloes (3.83%) than in male animals, which was 2.53% in male cattle and 2.80% in male buffaloes. The frequency analysis showed non-significant difference of prevalence in both male and female. In liver, the highest prevalence was observed both in cattle (31.4%) and buffalo (31.6%). In cattle, other organs like heart, lungs, tongue and esophagus showed prevalence of 22.9, 2.9, 11.4 and 8.6%, respectively while in buffaloes, heart and tongue showed 23.7% prevalence and lungs were affected in 2.6% animals with cysticercosis. Statistically, the difference in prevalence of cysticercosiscysts in different organs of cattle and buffaloes was significantly different (P<0.05). In conclusion, cysticercosis is prevalent in cattle and buffaloes with variable infection in different zones of Punjab province.
Key words: prevalence, bovine cysticercosis, buffaloes, heart, tongue, Punjab
|