Incidence of gastrointestinal helminthosis in sheep and goats in Patna (Bihar)

Gastrointestinal parasitism in local population of sheep and goats in Patna was studied by screening of 200 faecal samples and 22 gastrointestinal tracts of sheep and similarly by examining 300 and 90 respective samples from goats. The prevalence of various gastrointestinal (GI) helminths through coproscopy was found to be 89 and 79.73% and 90.9% and 91.11% through gastrointestinal tract examination in sheep and goats, respectively. The predominant parasitic ova detected in faecal samples of sheep were Haemonchus contortus (92.13%) followed by Trichostrongylus colubriformis (84.26%), Trichuris ovis (19.10%), Strongyloides papillosus (15.16%), strongyle eggs (15.16%) along with Moniezia expansa (3.36%), paramphistomes (11.23%) and Fasciola spp. (8.98%). While common helminths observed during intestinal scrapping examination were H. contortus, T. colubriformis, T. ovis., M. expansa, Cotylophoron cotylophorum and F. gigantica and the respective frequency of these infections were 90%, 80%, 75%, 5%, 55% and 5%. The parasitic fauna of goats recorded were H. contortus (89.76%), T. colubriformis (84.81%), S. papillosus (62.04%), strongyles (53.13%) and T. ovis (12.21%). M. expansa (3.96%) was the common cestode, while ova of trematodes viz. paramphistomes (33.99%) and Fasciola spp. (12.87%) were also detected in faecal samples of goats. Through GI tract examination the most prevalent nematodes recorded were H. contortus (84.14%), T. colubriformis (67.07%), and T. ovis (35.36%) whereas common cestode M. expansa (1.12%) and trematodes C. cotylophorum (47.56%) and F. gigantica (10.97%) were also observed in goats.