Occurrence and Pathology of Colibacillosis In CATTLE (Bos Indicus)

Cattle population is an integral part of the agriculture. In India total milk contribution of cows is 40% in the total milk production of 90.7 million metric tones. Cattle is one of the key animal in agriculture economy contributing substantially to the gross national products by the way of good quality milk, export quality leather etc. Colibacillosis continues to remain one of the most important disease entities of cattle/cattle calves. The present study was undertaken to elucidate occurrence and pathology of colibacillosis in cattle. This study revealed that the overall incidence of colibacillosis was 22.61 per cent in cattle in Rajasthan state. The Escherichia coli organisms were isolated from 145 tissue samples and these were categorized as follows: from intestine 32 (41.02%), lung 19 (24.43%), kidney 25 (32.05%), liver 17 (21.79%), heart 11 (14.10%), spleen 16 (20.51%) and lymph nodes 25 (32.05%). The gross changes in different affected organs were described as: there were congestion and haemorrhages in intestine, lung, kidney, liver, heart and spleen. In intestine, presence of mucinous exudate was very prominent. In some cases, white necrotic foci on the surface of liver and lung were also noted. Histopathological changes revealed haemorrhagic enteritis, hyperplasia of goblet cells, degeneration and desquamation of lining epithelium of villi in intestine. Congestion, haemorrhages, thickening of alveolar septa and hyperplasia of bronchiolar epithelium were noted in lung. Degeneration and necrosis were noted in liver, kidney, heart and mucosa of intestine. In addition to this, dilatation and congestion of hepatic sinusoids along with depletion of lymphocytes in spleen and lymph nodes were also noted.