Several studies conducted across the countries and continents showed that
B. sulcata is a common parasite in cattle and buffaloes. The majority of the
B. sulcata positive animals showed cysts in the faecal samples but many fresh samples checked immediately also showed trophozoites (Fig 2). The overall prevalence of
B. sulcata in Haryana was 59.12%. The prevalence rate differs from
Al-saffar et al., (2013) which had overall prevalence of 35% in buffaloes of Mosul, Iraq. While in another study, carried out by
Adhikari et al., (2013), prevalence rate of
B. sulcata was 27% in water buffalo of Chitwan Valley, southern Nepal. A more or less similar positivity rate of 44.6% in cattle was also recorded by
Fox and Jacobs, (1986) in U.K. However, a higher positivity rate of 71.8% of
B. sulcata in cattle of Denmark (
Henriksen, 1977) was reported. The prevalence rate varies in India from place to place as reported by earlier workers (
Mamatha and Placid, 2006) of 12.6% and 20.5% for cattle and buffaloes respectively. The reason for differences in the prevalence of infection could be due to many different factors, such as environmental factor, animal, farm management practices and stress factors
Al-Saffar et al. (2010).
Fox and Jacobs, (1986) showed that seasonal variations in the prevalence of the infection and cyst excretion rates were related to changes in the diet and opportunities for transmission, furthermore, the delivery rate may lead to an increase in the prevalence of infection. The high prevalence in cattle of Denmark would suggest that local environmental factors support the transmission and persistence of the parasite.
Age-wise prevalence of
B. sulcata in Hisar district had no significant difference between the two age groups i.e. below 6 months 60.75% and above 6 months 57.50% (Table 1). Our findings are in accordance to the findings of
Al-Seady and Kawan, (2014) who reported a non-significant difference in infection rate between different age groups. Similarly,
Al-Saffar et al. (2013) reported non-significant difference in infection rate between different age groups but
Al-Saffar et al. (2010). reported a significant difference between different age groups 3-8 months (11.36%), 2-7 years (35.29%) and 4-8 years (28.75%).
Hasheminasab et al., (2015). showed a significant difference between different age groups. These findings indicate that animals of any age are susceptible to
B. sulcata infections and age has little effect on the presence of
B. sulcata infection. Sex wise prevalence of
B. sulcata in male and female was 68.27% and 56.35%, respectively (Table 1) with no significant difference. This finding is contrary to the one reported earlier by
Hasheminasab et al., (2015). who recorded the prevalence of
B. sulcata was statistically higher in female (47.32%) than male (38.46) in cattle. The possible reason for the higher prevalence rate in female as compared to males may be the different management of females than males. Our findings are similar with
Al-Seady and Kawan, (2014). who showed a non-significant difference in infection rate between male and female as these ratios were (43.6%) and (42.8%) respectively similarly
Al-Zubaidi and Al-Mayah, (2011). also reported that there is a non-significant difference in infection rate between male and female. The non-significant difference in the rate of infection between males and females is anticipated because no known factor protects either of the two sex and absent in the other sex especially when males and females are raised together and are exposed to the same environmental conditions (
Al-Seady and Kawan, 2014).The effect of age and sex on the risk of prevalence of
B. sulcata was not significant (Table 4).
The buffaloes kept on
Katcha floor had 65.85% of infection and those reared on
Pakka floor had 56.13% of infection with a significant difference (Table 2). The risk of prevalence of
B. sulcata was lower (OD=0.522) in buffaloes raised on
Pakka floor as compared to
Katcha floor (Table 4). Our findings validate findings of
Hasheminasab et al., (2015). who reported prevalence of
B. sulcata infection in cattle on
Katcha floor (50%) was higher than that of cattle on the
Pakka floor (24.32%) and significant difference in these results suggests
Pakka floor reduces exposure to infection.
Pakka floor may be one of the factors to reduce the prevalence of
B. sulcata. Further investigation is needed in confirming the difference of infection due to Katcha and Pakka floor rearing because the data available is very less and not specific while our study clearly show significant difference which reduces in reducing infection. Animals with diarrhoea had significantly higher (85%) association of
B. sulcata infection as compared with those not having diarrhoea (46.66%) (Table 2).The animals with diarrhoea were at greater risk (OD=6.30) of having
B. sulcata infection as compared to animals without diarrhoea (Table 4). This finding matches with several other researchers
(Nurialtug et al., 2006; Kaewthamasorn and Wongsamee, 2006;
Al-Saffar et al. (2010).
Al-Zubaidi and Al-Mayah; 2011 and
Al-Saffar et al. (2013) which means
B. sulcata can be one of the causes of diarrhoea in ruminants while fig 3 show the association of prevalence with diarrhoea or non-diarrhoea animals. Animals were having more infection in monsoon followed by summer and winter 78.18% 58.36%, 38.13% respectively which showed significant difference (Table 2). A significantly higher prevalence of
B. sulcata in buffaloes was observed during monsoon season followed by summer and winter season and buffaloes in mansoon season were two (OD=2.88) times more prone to infection than that of winter season.
Kumar et al., (2017) reported the highest incidence of
B. sulcata infection in buffaloes in winter (43.8%) followed by monsoon (31.0%) and summer (31.0%). Our repo is supported by
Hasheminasab et al., (2015) who reported higher prevalence in rainy season (63.38%) than summer (44.15%) and winter (28.99%) in cattle.
Fox and Jacobs (1986) showed that seasonal fluctuations in the prevalence of the infection and cyst excretion rates were related to changes in the diet and opportunities for transmission, furthermore, the delivery rate of cyst excretion may lead to an increase in the prevalence of infection. The intensity of infection of
B. sulcata in buffaloes was higher in diarrhoeic animals as compared to non-diarrhoeic. Animals with an intensity of infection of 1-5 cysts/trophozoites per slide (+) only 39.98% of buffaloes were diarrhoea positive, when intensity was 5-10 cysts/trophozoites (++), 63.50% of buffaloes were diarrhoea positive and when intensity was above 10 cysts/trophozoites (+++), 84.90% of buffaloes were diarrhoea positive (Table 3). The association between intensity of
B. sulcata infection and diarrhoea was significant. Our findings are similar to
Tomczuk et al., (2005), Al-Saffar et al., (2010),
Al-Zubaidi and Al-Mayah, (2011) and
Hong and Youn, (1995) The ability of this parasite to cause diarrhoea is not related to the invasiveness of the trophozoite in the intestinal mucosa rather the metabolic products which result from the rapid multiplication of the parasite
(Tomczuk et al., 2005) our findings revealed that as intensity of infection increase there is increase in number of diarrhoeic cases and Fig 4 show association between diarrhoea animals and intensity of infection.
