Investigation of Gastrointestinal Parasites in Dairy Cattle of Tehsil Babozai, District Swat

A study was conducted from January, 2018 to August, 2018 in different wards of Tehsil Babozai, district Swat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to investigate and find out the prevalence of gastrointestinal parasites in dairy cattle. For this purpose, a total number of 116 fecal samples from cattle were randomly collected from different wards of district Swat and a well-structured questionnaire having the information about the cattle age, sex, parity, management, body conditions, fecal consistency, and disease were filled. Result showed overall prevalence of gastrointestinal parasites (37%), species observed in this study were Protozoan (6.89 %) as Eimeria bovis, Nematodes (60.34%), as Ostertagia ostertagi (30%), followed by Trichostrongylus spp. (19%), Haemonchus contortus (5%), Strongyloides papillosus (3.44%), Cooperia spp. (1.7%), Toxocara canis  (0.8%). Trematodes (5.17%) as Paramphistomum spp. and Fasciola hepatica, however, only one species of Cestodes (0.8%) such as Moniezia expansa was observed. Statistical analysis revealed that there is no significant variation in prevalence of cattle in relation to age, sex, parity, management, fecal consistency, body condition, disease, however high prevalence showed in young cattle < than 3 years having poor body condition due to animia and diseases. These all factors and conditions are greatly associated with parasitic infection in cattle of Swat. Our study concludes that gastrointestinal parasites such as Liver fluke and roundworms cause the biggest problems for Swatian producers and need to be eradicated.