First report on occurrence of Babesiainfection in Nilgai Boselaphus tragocamelus from central India
Bahar Baviskar 1, Kailas Ingle 2, Priya Gawande 3, Sachin Raut 4, Kirty Sirothia5 & Arun Bhandarkar 6
1C/o Shrikrishna V. Baviskar, Retired
Judge, Hanuman Galli, Post: Sakali,Yawal, Jalgaon,
Maharashtra 425302, India
2,4,5,6 Department
of Pathology, Nagpur Veterinary College, M.A.F.S.U., Seminary Hills, Nagpur,
Maharashtra 440006, India
3 C/o Jaggannathrao S. Gawande, Gokul Colony, In front of Bhuibhar Gasco, Akola road, Akot,
Akola, Maharashtra 444101, India
Email: 1 drbaharbaviskar@gmail.com;
2 kailashvet@rediffmail.com; 3 drpriyagawande@gmail.com;
4 sachin_raut12@rediffmail.com;
Date of
publication 26 March 2009
ISSN 0974-7907
(online) | 0974-7893 (print)
Editor: Jacob V. Cheeran
Manuscript
details:
Ms # o1829
Received 27 July
2007
Final revised
received 26 August 2008
Finally accepted
15 October 2008
Citation: Baviskar, B., K. Ingle, P. Gawande,
S. Raut, K. Sirothia &
A. Bhandarkar (2009). First report
on occurrence of Babesia infection in Nilgai Boselaphus tragocamelus from central India. Journal of
Threatened Taxa 1(3): 196.
Copyright: © Bahar Baviskar, Kailas Ingle, Priya Gawande, Sachin Raut, Kirty Sirothia & Arun Bhandarkar 2009. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 UnportedLicense. JoTT allows unrestricted use of this article
in any medium for non-profit purposes, reproduction and distribution by
providing adequate credit to the authors and the source of publication.
Acknowledgement: The
authors are thankful to the Associate Dean, Nagpur Veterinary College, Nagpur
for providing necessary facilities.
Babesiosis, a tick-borne
infectious haemoprotozoan disease of cattle,
buffaloes, sheep, goats, equines, dogs, cats and wild mammals, is caused by
intra erythrocytic piroplasmsof the genus Babesia. Generally, this disease
is characterized by pyrexia, haemolytic anaemia, haemoglobinuria,
jaundice and death. Although sufficient
literature is available on babesiosis in domestic
animals, meagre information is available on the
infection in wild animals. This is an attempt
to document the first report of Babesiainfection in a Nilgai (Boselaphus tragocamelus) from Aarmori,Gadchiroli district, central India.
A male Nilgai (approximately 6-7 years) belonging to forest area
of Gadchiroli district was presented for post mortem
examination to the Nagpur Veterinary College, Nagpur. Heart blood smears were prepared, stained
with Leishman’s stain and examined microscopically.
At necropsy the
lesions found were enlarged spleen, congestion of liver and kidney and pale
mucous membranes indicating severe anaemia which are
in agreement with Radostits et al. (2000) who also
reported dark brown discolouration of the liver in
acute infection of Babesia. The blood smear examination revealed Babesia sp. organisms. Babesiosishas been recognized in many wild animals such as Jackal, Zebra, Reindeer,
Spotted Deer, Square-lipped Rhinoceros, Bandicoot (Tripathyet al. 1983), Wild Cat (Mudaliar et al. 1950), and
Leopard (Baviskar et al. 2007). A male Mithun (Bos frontalis), of Nandankanan Biological Park, Bhubaneshwar,
Orissa was also found positive for Babesia sp.
and successfully treated with two doses of Diminazine aceturate (Tripathy et al.
1983). Lingard& Jenning (1904) described spotaneous piroplasmosis in deer belonging to Bareilly area in
Uttar Pradesh. Hilpertshauseret al. (2006) conducted a survey of the occurrence of ruminant Babesia sp. in Switzerland in which they identified Babesia sp. organisms from ticks from wild ruminants
(Deer, Roe Deer and Chamois) by PCR. The
animals was kept in confinement for some period which may have led to stressful
condition, which is in consonance with the findings of Penzhorn(2006) who have discussed development of clinical babesiosisin the Black Rhino under stressful conditions like confinement after
capture. Disease management views all
over the world seem to be changing and diseases among wild animals are being
recognized as an important obstacle in wildlife conservation and
management. Babesiosisis a widely distributed disease, occurring from the tropics to the Arctic and
reports of this disease in wide variety of wild animals are increasing and
needs special attention from the management point of view.
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