Gastrointestinal Nematodes and Protozoa in Small and Large Ruminants from Rural Agro-Climatic Regions of Northern India

Gastrointestinal nematode parasites and gastrointestinal protozoan parasites are considered detrimental to the livestock population and manifest production-limiting effects. Small and large ruminants (cattle, buffalo, goats, and sheep) are important components of the rural economy of northern India. However, the epidemiology of gastrointestinal parasites in this agro-climatic region has not been studied extensively. In this study, the prevalence of gastrointestinal parasites was determined in 163 animals, including cattle (n = 86), buffalo (n = 11), goats (n = 48), and sheep (n = 18) from 26 sampling sites by copro-parasitological analysis. The prevalence values of 94.47% and 66.87% were recorded for the nematodes and protozoa, respectively. The group-wise prevalence of gastrointestinal nematode parasites was 95.3%, 90.9%, 93.7%, and 94.4% in cattle, buffalo, goats, and sheep, respectively, whereas for gastrointestinal protozoan parasites, the respective values were 70.9%, 54.5%, 60.4%, and 72.2%. Copromicroscopy revealed ten genera of nematodes—Ascaris, Capillaria, Cooperia, Haemonchus, Nematodirus, Oesophagostomum, Ostertagia, Strongyloides, Trichostrongylus, Trichuris, and one protozoan genus—Eimeria. The prevalence of Trichostrongylus spp. was highest in buffaloes, whereas in cattle, Ascaris spp. were predominant. In both goats and sheep, Haemonchus contortus was found to be predominant. The highest prevalence of gastrointestinal parasites was recorded in the rainy season. These findings indicate the prevalence of gastrointestinal parasites in the ruminant population in this region and necessitate the implementation of preventive and control strategies for effective animal health management.