A Study on Epidemiology and Haematological Changes of Fascioliasis in Cattle and its Therapeutic Management with Indigenous Medicinal Plants

The present investigation has been carried out to study the epidemiology of fascioliasis in cattle and its therapeutic management with indigenous medicinal plants. Under the prevailing agro-climatic condition of four locations of Kamrup district of Assam, out of 551 nos. of randomly selected cattle, 46 number of animals were found positive for fascioliasis. The overall occurrence of fascioliasis was 8.35% out of which 8.28% local male, 8.23% local female, 8.33% crossbred male and 8.59% crossbred female cattle were found to be affected. In the present study, efficacy of Entada phaseoloides was found to be 87.50% and that of Azadirachta indica was 81.25%. However, triclabendazole showed 100% efficacy. Various blood parameters viz., haemoglobin, TEC and albumin level were found to be elevated following treatment with methanolic extract of E. phaseoloides, A. indica as well as triclabendazole in comparison to the Fasciola positive untreated group. The declining levels of TLC, eosinophil, monocyte count, total serum bilirubin, ALT, AST, ALP and GGT could be observed after treatment with these drugs. However, the percentage of PCV did not increase significantly after the administration of all these drugs, singly. Also, no significant difference could be observed in basophil, neutrophil, lymphocyte count and ESR level following treatment with triclabendazole, E. phaseoloides and/or A. indica. Based on clinical recovery and improvement in haemato-biochemical parameters, the methanolic extracts of the indigenous plants were found to be highly effective against fascioliasis in cattle through their efficacy were not at par with that of standard commercial drug, triclabendazole.

• E. phaseoloides and A. indica plants are effective against treating fascioliasis in cattle.

• There was no effect of breed and sex on incidence of fascioliasis in cattle