Other Parasites

EAR-SORE IN INDIA.

Stephanofilariasis is mainly caused by two species. Stephanofilaria assamensis causes hump –sore in cattle and occurs mainly in Assam,West Bengal, Orissa and Andaman islands. On the otherhand, S.zaheeri causes ear-sore in buffaloes and more widespread in India .

Ear-sore ,caused by Stephanofilaria zaheeri , is found in proportion to age of the buffaloes reaching to 90-100% in old animals. Apparently healthy buffalo skins also possess adult males. It is futile to conduct skin biopsy for judging drug efficacy because of a lower filarial concentration even in clinical cases. In.vitro testing showed malathion to possess anti filarial activity too. Interestingly, all the cattle examined grossly or histopathologically were non compatible to S.zaheeri. These findings and our knowledge on Stephanofilaria have been discussed in our review on Stephnofilarial dermatitis in India (Vet. Res. Comm, 8:93. 1984).

SARCOCYSTOSIS IN INDIA.

Sarcocystosis has been demonstrated to occur in almost all domestic animals in India where dog or cat is acting as final host of the parasite. Though mature sarcocysts have been shown In almost every animal species in nature, its pathogenesis leading to death or abortion either in sheep goat or cattle has not been proved in natural cases.

We developed a method for detecting developing sarcocysts in experimentally infected goats and a method for collecting large number of sporocysts from experimentally infected dogs. The transmission potential of dogs was assessed The life cycle and associated pathogenesis of Sarcocystis capracanis has been studied in India.

Importantly , Sarcocysts of Sarcocystis spp. were reported by us from albino rats from India, which may be tried to develop as a laboratory model for studying sarcocystosis

WILD LIFE PARASITES.

A survey of wild animals of Kanha National Park, Kanha, Madhya Pradesh was undertaken for parasitic infections. The survey revealed presence of Toxocara, Ascaris, Hookworms, Taenia, amphistomes, and Fasciola in wild animals which included swamp deer, spotted dear, elephants, tigers and caniids. Interestingly, the tigers and a wild cat were excreting Paragonimus eggs in their faeces beside other eggs. A deer-ked bite in man at Kanha was also reported by us .Recently we have observed Bivitellobilharzia nairi infection in 8 out of 25 elephants stationed at Kanha national Park suggesting establishment of the focus in the area which is not a natural habitat of the elephants .