PREVALENCE OF GASTROINTESTINAL PARASITISM OF CATTLE IN CHITTAGONG, BNGLADESH

Abstract

A six month long (February to July’2011) prevalence study on gastrointestinal parasitism was conducted in crossbred cattle of Chittagong district, Bangladesh. A total of 200 fecal samples were collected randomly from different small and medium scale dairy farms of three representative thanas. Samples were examined by routine coproscopical methods. The investigation revealed that the overall prevalence of gastrointestinal parasitic infections was 24.06% in the study population. Among different gastrointestinal parasitic infections, the overall prevalence of Fasciola spp infection was the highest (8.00 %) followed by Paramphistomum spp infection (7.53%). The lowest overall prevalence was recorded in Trichuris and Strongyloides spp infections (0.50%). Age specific prevalence was found higher in adult and young cattle where Fasciola spp infection was the highest (10.0%) in adult followed by young and calf. Paramphistomum spp infection was the highest in young (10.53%) where as Moniezia spp infection were more in adult cattle (3.0%). Toxocara spp infections were recorded highest (12.50%) in calf which was not statistically significant. Sex specific prevalence exposed that female cattle showed more susceptibility to different gastrointestinal parasitic infections than male but it was not statistically significant. However, frequency of Fasciola spp infections was the highest in female crossbred cattle (9.21%) where as Toxocara spp (5.08%) and Moniezia spp (3.39%) were found more in male cattle. It could be stated that the current investigation was a limited study as topographical variation, seasonal pattern of the diseases as well as indigenous/native cattle were not included. Hence, it can be recommended further extensive investigation on gastrointestinal parasitism to overcome the limitation of the current studies which will assist to determine the important predictors related to such diseases.