Occurrence of Setaria digitata in peritoneal cavity of a Gaolao bull in Balaghat, Madhya Pradesh

The present investigation reports the occurrence of filarial worms in the peritoneal cavity during the surgery of a bull suffering from urinary bladder rupture and uroperitoneum. In these worms, the mouth was surrounded by cuticular peribuccal crown with dorsal, ventral and lateral prominences. The tail of the male had three pairs of preclocal, a pair of ad-cloacal and three pairs of post cloacal papillae. The spicules were unequal and dissimilar. In females, the long spirally coiled posterior end terminated in a smooth knob. On the basis of morphological characteristics, the worms were identified as Setaria digitata. This seems to be the first report of S. digitata from cattle from Madhya Pradesh.