Prevalence and histopathology of Trichuris ovis infection in caecum of slaughtered sheep in West Bengal, India

The prevalence and histopathological lesions caused by Trichuris ovis was observed in caeca of slaughtered sheep of West Bengal in the present study. A total of three hundred sixty (360) caeca of slaughtered sheep were examined for the presence of T. ovis. Five uninfected and ten (10) infected caeca of slaughtered sheep were examined for histopathological lesions. The overall prevalence of T. ovis infection was 56.9% in sheep. Caeca of uninfected sheep appeared normal in histological specimen and caeca of five infected sheep showed only slight haemorrhage and cellular infiltration around the anterior end of the worm and rest five samples showed no marked cellular infiltration. The present study revealed that T. ovis is non-pathogenic to sheep and might also have adopted some immune evasion mechanism as indicated by the absence of cellular reaction around the anterior portion of the worm which remains deeply embedded in caecal mucosa.