Incidence of gastro-intestinal parasites in wild ruminants around Jabalpur, India

Parasitic infections can cause disease and death in wild animals and can become a source of infection for domestic animals. Epidemiological studies are important to know about the status and transmission of diseases. Parasitic diseases are best controlled by preventing the contact and parasite transmission between wild and domestic animals and by manipulating the factors involved in the disease transmission. Establishing a data base to predict the disease by performing epidemiological studies round the year is of utmost importance and needs attention (Shrivastava 2003). Methods: Fifty faecal samples of wild animals including 15 samples of Chital Axis axis, 15 of Neelgai Boselaphus tragocamelus, 10 of Gaur Bos gaurus and 10 of Sambar Rusa unicolor were collected from the peripheral forests around Jabalpur. Faecal samples

were subjected to coprological examination as per the method of Sloss et al. (1994) with a few modifications.
Briefly, 2g of strained faecal sample was mixed with tap water in a 15ml centrifuge tube and centrifuged for 1-2 min at 1500-2000 rpm.The supernatant was removed and similarly two washings were given until the supernatant remained clear.After the last washing, the faecal decant at the bottom of the tube was mixed with sheather's sugar solution and was filled up to the brim and was covered with a clean coverslip.Then it was centrifuged at 1500-2000 rpm for two minutes.The coverslip was removed from the top, placed on clean glass slide and examined for helminths and their eggs.The supernatant fluid which remained in the tube after removing coverslip was drained off leaving the bottom sediment.The sediment was resuspended in few drops of water.One or two drops of sediment was taken on microscopic slide and examined microscopically under low magnification for trematode eggs.Identification of eggs was made by observing their characters (Soulsby 1986).
Ninety-four percent of the parasitic infections were mixed infections comprising multiple different parasite species whereas only 6.0% consisted of only one parasite species.
Discussion: Most of the samples were collected around villages close to the forest areas.The prevalence of Trichuris, Strongylides and Coccidia was high in most of the wild animals in our study.This might be due to contamination of pastures by the grazing of domestic animals.
Of special interest was the infection with Fasciola found in all species of wild herbivores.One reason for this could be that domestic animals are competing with the wild animals for grazing areas in the forests and force wild animals to graze in swampy areas thus exposing them to vegetation infected with metacercaria of Fasciola.
Fasciola gigantica among the wild cervids and other herbivores of India has been reported from Spotted Deer Axis axis and Black Buck Antelope cervicapra by Rao & Acharjyo (1969, 1972), Swamp Deer Rucervus duvauceli duvauceli by Verma et al. (1994) and Indian Rhinoceros Rhinoceros unicornis by Bhattacharjee & Haldar (1971).In addition, eggs of Fasciola were detected in faeces of Chitals and Sambars of Corbett National Park, Ramnagar and Wildlife National Park at Dudwa in Uttar Pradesh (Gaur et al. 1979;Arora et al. 1985).Incidence of Fasciola was also reported from Chital, Sambar and Neelgai at Pench Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh (Shrivastava et al. 2005).Our study reports the occurrence of F. gigantica from Gaur and there seems to be no previous report on F. gigantica in Gaur from India.
Our study provides a first overview on parasites in wild ruminants in the vicinity of villages, but to evaluate parasite transmission rates much more studies are required on livestock in the area and on wild herbivores in areas where they do not compete with livestock.
Figure 1.Parasitewise infection in wild herbivores Parasites S t r o n g y le S t r o n g y lo id T r ic h u r is T o x o c a r a M o n ie z ia C o c c id ia A m p h is t o m e