Prevalence of Cryptosporidiosis in Neonatal Buffalo Calves in Ludhiana District of Punjab, India

摘要

In neonatal buffaloes calves Cryptosporidium spp. infection was investigated to determine its importance as etiological agent of diarrhoea syndrome. A total of 162 faecal samples were collected from neonatal buffalo calves of below 5 months age and examined for the Cryptosporidium spp. infection. Overall prevalence of the disease was observed as 38.3%. A gradual decline in the prevalence values was seen with increase in the age, highest in 0-30 days age group i.e., 65.71% and lowest in 4-5 months age group i.e., 5.88%. This trend of decline in prevalence values was observed in both diarrhoeic as well as non-diarrhoeic calves. A high degree of association was seen between Cryptosporidium infection and diarrhoea with infected cases at relatively higher risk to diarrhoea than non-infected. The highest prevalence (40.65%) of infection of was recorded during the monsoon season followed by pre monsoon season (39.35%) and lowest prevalence (34.04%) was recorded in the post monsoon season. Female calves showed higher prevalence (40.35%) than the male calves (33.3%).