Epidemiological Study on Tick-borne Hemoparasitic Infections of Cattle in Western Uttar Pradesh

Abstract

This study was designed to evaluate the prevalence of major hemoparasites (Anaplasma, Theileria and Babesia) of cattle and determinants associated with occurrence of these infections in western Uttar Pradesh. For the study 380 blood samples of cattle were collected from different organized and unorganized farm, gaushalas, camps, and veterinary hospitals along with the related data in designed questionnaire. The samples were processed in the laboratory of Department of Veterinary Public Health & Epidemiology and examined by microscopy of Giemsa-stained thin blood smear and mPCR. Microscopy could detect 52.10 % samples positive for bovine anaplasmosis, 4.47% for theileriosis, 1.05% for babesiosis and 2.36% for mixed infection of Theileria and Anaplasma. Female cattle (58.86%) had less prevalence as compared to male (65.62%) for overall hemoparasite infections. Age wise prevalence, adult cattle >2year of age (54.41%) had less prevalence as compared to young <2yrs (67.27%). Highest prevalence was found in Meerut district and lowest in Muzaffarnagar. Acaricide use was associated with low prevalence (44.18%) when compared with no application of acaricide (68.12%). Organized farms had low infection (58.0%) compared to unorganized (60.71%), and kaccha (63.49%) floor have high prevalence compared to pukka floor (53.12%). Risk factors like age, acaricide use, floor type, region and months were found to be statistically significant in the study.