Occurrence of gastrointestinal parasitic infections in pig of Dinajpur district, Bangladesh

Abstract

A three month long cross-sectional study on gastrointestinal parasitism of pigs was conducted two upazillas of Dinajpur District, Bangladesh. A total of 100 fecal samples were collected randomly from different households of the two upazillas of the pertinent district. Samples were examined by routine coproscopical methods. The investigation revealed that the overall prevalence of gastrointestinal parasitic infections was 65% (either single or mixed) in the studied population. Among different gastrointestinal parasitic infections, occurrence Ascaris suum was the highest (38%) followed by Macracanthorhynchus hirudinaceus (22%), Strongyloides ransomni (20%) and Trichuris suis (5%).Age specific infections rate revealed that pigs age between (>5-12months) were affected more by different gastrointestinal parasitic infections where Ascaris suum infection constituted the highest, (45.24%)and Macracanthorhynchus hirudinaceus infection was 35.71%, that was statistically significant (P>0.05). On the other hand, infection caused by Strongyloides ransomni (26.19%) was more frequent in age group ≤ 6months of age whereas age group >12months showed very lower prevalence than other two groups for all infections except Oesophagostomum sp (6.25%). Further, occurrence of protozoan parasites were common in age groups (>5-12months) which was not statistically significant (P>0.05). Nevertheless, sex specific infection rate explored that female pigs showed more susceptibility to different gastrointestinal parasitic infections in compare to male. The occurrence of Ascaris suum infection was the highest (40.48%) in female. Conversely, occurrence of Hyostromgylus rubidus infection was the maximum (5.17%) in male pig in compare to female (2.38%). Further, infection caused by coccidian protozoa or Balantidium coli were very lower in both gender of the study population but it was not statistically significant. It could be stated that the current investigation was fresh of its type which will be acted as bench mark for further study in this area. Moreover, as it was a limited study where breed and topographical variation, seasonal pattern of the diseases were not included. Hence, it was suggested further extensive investigation on gastrointestinal parasitism to overcome the limitations of the current study which will assist to determine the important predictors related to such parasitic diseases.