Abstract:
Gastrointestinal parasitism is a condition caused by the gastrointestinal
parasites. It is a major impediment to livestock production. It has negative
impact on economy of farms by causing mortality and losses in body weight gain,
growth, production and condemnation of carcasses. A cross sectional study was
carried out at cattle farms in Kilinochchi district to determine the prevalence of
gastrointestinal parasites of cattle from January 2020 to July 2020. A randomly
selected 106 cattle were examined using standard coprological examination.The
faecal samples were screened for gastrointestinal parasitic eggs by McMaster
and simple sedimentation test. The positive samples were subjected to egg
morphological identification of prevalent gastrointestinal parasitic species. The
results showed 15.10% (n=16) of cattle were moderately infested by
gastrointestinal parasites and 84.90% (n=90) of cattle were highly infested by
gastrointestinal parasites.In this study area most of the cattle (94.30 %, n=100)
were infested by more than one parasite species (Multiple parasites infestation)
while 5.70 %( n=6) of cattle had single parasite infestation. The eggs of
nematodes (85.95%), trematodes (9.03%) and oocysts of protozoans (5.02%)
were observed in this study area. The Ascaris sp (84.00%, n=89) was common
parasite found in all four veterinary regions. Other species such as Strongyle sp
(77.40%, n=82), Strongyloides sp (72.60%, n=77), Paramphistomum sp (25.50%,
n=27), Eimeria sp (14.20%, n=18) and Trichostrongylus sp (8.50%, n=9) were
also found. The Eimeria sp, Paramphistomum sp and Trichostrongylus sp were
highly observed in cross breed than the local breed. The Ascaris sp, Strongylus sp
and Strongyloides sp widely found in local breed. The higher infestation was
recorded in Kandawalai veterinary region (96.00%) while lowest infestation
observed in Karachchi veterinary region (71.42%).The Trichostrongylus sp and
Paramphistome sp were not found in Pachilapallai veterinary region.
