Prevalence of Blood Parasites in Cattle and Buffaloes in District Narowal, Pakistan

Abstract

Dairy animals, especially cows and buffaloes, are very important for an agricultural country. Diseased animals can cause major losses to the economy of the country. Tick-borne blood parasitic diseases are major constraints to the dairy industry, especially where there are resource-poor farming communities. The current study was conducted to investigate the prevalence of blood parasites in cattle and buffaloes from different areas of District Narowal, Pakistan. A total of 145 blood samples were collected in EDTA tubes from the animals. Giemsa-stained thin smears of all blood samples were prepared on sterilized glass slides and examined under a microscope. It was found that the overall prevalence of anaplasmosis was 8.97%, babesiosis was 20.00%, and theileriosis was 24.83% in Narowal. The percentage prevalence of anaplasmosis in blood samples was 4.26% (2/47), 14.29% (4/28), 15.00% (3/20), 10.00% (2/20), and 6.67% (2/30); babesiosis was 5.52% (8/47), 3.57% (1/28), 25.00% (5/20), 25.00% (5/20), and 33.33% (10/30); and theileriosis was 12.77% (6/47), 28.57% (8/28), 45.00% (9/20), 40.00% (8/20), and 16.67% (5/30), collected from Doaba, Thillay Kalan, Raib, Talwandi Bhindran, and Kalu Padda, respectively. It was also observed that a higher percentage of blood parasites was recorded in female animals 56.76% (63/111) than in male animals 44.12% (15/34). As conventional techniques are more laborious and time-consuming, it is recommended that advanced techniques such as PCR should be used for the detection of these blood parasitic diseases so that they can be diagnosed and treated promptly.

Keywords: Blood Parasites, Heamoprotozaons, Tick-borne, Cattle, Buffaloes, Narowal