Pathomorphological study on parasitic conditions in meat animals in Himachal Pradesh

The present study was done from January 2017 to December, 2021 to investigate the commonly occurring parasitological conditions in meat animals reported during routine necropsy examination. The animals targeted in this study included buffaloes, sheep and goats, poultry birds and rabbits. The cases of buffaloes during necropsy were found to depict fasciolosis, sarcocystis, hydatidosis and cysticercosis. The sheep and goats revealed the evidence of hydatidosis, hemonchosis, tapeworms, cysticercosis and hepatic distomiasis. Majorly the reports of intestinal coccidiosis and ascariasis were commonly encountered among poultry birds. Rabbits were found to show conditions like hepatic coccidiosis, encephalitozoon and ear canker. The parasitic conditions recorded in these animals were further confirmed by histopathological and parasitological investigations. The parasites in meat animals directly or indirectly influence the growth of animals and often pose a significant threat in terms of economic loss to marginal farmers or meat industries. Many of these parasitic conditions including hydatidosis and cysticercosis can act as para-sitological conditions of zoonotic significance to the mankind via spill over infections or through meat consumption. The present study document the parasitic conditions recorded during routine necropsy examination, which are although sub-clinical normally.