Impact of host's diet and parasite intensity on Morphology of Moniezia expansa

The present study is a part of the helminthological study conducted on ruminants of Ladakh for the time period of one year. In the present study impact of diet of the host and intensity of the parasite on Morphology of a Cestode (Moniezia expansa) was taken into consideration for which postmortem examination of slaughtered host animals belonging to different age groups and of either sex feeding on different diets were carried out and the parasite/s recovered were processed and were subjected for the study of morphology and morphometry. It was observed that diet and intensity was having a relation with morphology and morphometry of the parasite. In case of higher intensity the size of parasite was comparatively small as compared to the specimens with low intensity, so was the case with respect to diet of the host it was observed that the parasites recovered from the host animals which feed on highly nutritive food were larger in size as compared to those specimens recovered from the hosts which feed on average or below average food. The parasite being reported for the first time from this region has been briefly redescribed with some intraspecific variations.