HYPODERMATOSIS IN BUFFALOES IN PAKISTAN

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About 5.7 million buffalo heads are present in the D.G.Khan division (Anonymous, 1990) that is at threat to the disease. Pakistan produces about 1.6 billion tones ...
OnLine Journal of Biological Sciences 2 (3): 204, 2002

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Asian Network for Scientific Information 2002

Hypodermatosis in Buffaloes in Pakistan M. Mazhar Ayaz and M. Anwar Department of Veterinary Parasitology, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan Abstract: This paper describes the occurrence of hypodermatosis in water buffaloes, first time in the history of Pakistan. Out of 30,000 buffaloes examined in Dera Ghazi Khan Division, eleven were found infected with warbles in the Indus riverbank area. The range of warbles on infected animals was 2-13. The study and epidemiological survey of warbles ranged from October 1998 to February 1999 and October 1999 to February 2000. Key words: Hpodermosis, warbles, buffaloes, epidemiology, Pakistan

Introduction Pakistan lies between latitude 24 degree and 37 degree North and longitudes 61 to 76 degree East. (Ahmad, 1995). Pakistan in general is arid to semi arid, tropical to subtropical country that posses all the four distinct climate seasons (Ahmad, 1995). As Pakistan is agriculture-based country (Ahmad, 1995) the most of the people participating are mediocre and living simple life and earning their livelihood from selling of their agro-livestock by products and rearing of the livestocks. When the area faces drought situation they sell their animals on nominal prices and the situation gets worst when the hide is sold infected with warbles as well as their animals do not fetch the attractive market price. About 5.7 million buffalo heads are present in the D.G.Khan division (Anonymous, 1990) that is at threat to the disease. Pakistan produces about 1.6 billion tones of milk and 4 million hides from the buffalo (Anonymous, 2000). Ticks are important ectoparasites, which inflict enormous economic losses in the livestock production, which occur annually in tropical and subtropical countries like Pakistan (Khan, 1993). Hypodermatosis is an important disease after ticks in cattle of Pakistan. It inflicts considerable economic losses to leather industry by lowering down the market value of hides. Other losses include lowered milk production and degrading of meat quality (Soulsby, 1982). The prevalence of disease in cattle and goats has been reported from various parts of the country (Hussain et al., 1981; Khan et al., 1991, 1994, 1997; Ayaz, 1998; Ayaz and Khan, 1999; Ayaz et al., 1999). Currently no NGO is working in the country for the control of pest mostly people manage to control the disease from their own pockets.

Materials and Methods A total of 30,000 buffaloes maintained along the both banks of river Indus in Dera Ghazi Khan district, Rajanpur district and Taunsa tehsil were included in this study. Every herd was checked fortnightly from July 1998 to February 1999 and July 1999 to February 2000 for the appearance of warbles (nodules) on all parts of the body of buffaloes. Warbles were examined through hand palpation method on the back of infested animals and were recorded. First appearance of nodules and dropping of larvae on the ground was also recorded.

Results and Discussion Out of 30,000 buffaloes examined, eleven were found infected with warbles. The age of the infected buffaloes ranged from 2-10 years. The nodule formation started in the last week of September and perforation in the skin was noticed by the last week of October to 1st week of November. By November 26 all the larvae had fallen on the ground. The number of nodules on the infested animal ranged from 2-13. The nodules were observed on back region, flank region and hump of animals. Hypodermatosis is an endemic disease of buffalo, cattle and goats in Pakistan. Its

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prevalence in cattle and goats has been reported almost all parts of the world. However, information about its occurrence in buffaloes is meager. The manage mental practices of cattle and buffaloes are alike in most parts of Pakistan. Therefore, presumably, buffaloes are equally exposed to the warble fly attack as cattle. The Indus river system has several tributary rivers. The important ones joining the Indus on left side are Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi and Sutlej. Each river has its own tributaries (Ahmad, 1995), but hypodermatosis has been observed only along the both banks of the river Indus only in the discussed area. Control of warble fly disease now should also be directed toward buffaloes being the major dairy animal of the Asia.

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