Systematic Epidemiology and Prevalence Analysis of Intestinal Ciliate Buxtonella sulcata in Buffaloes of Haryana

Background: Buxtonellosis is a disease caused by intestinal ciliated protozoan Buxtonella sulcata. This intestinal ciliate may result in subclinical infection or clinical disease including diarrhoea, so systematic epidemiology investigation was done in and around Haryana. Methods: Total of 800 faecal samples were collected in year 2016-2017 by multi-stage stratified random sampling from buffaloes of Haryana. Effect of age (1-6 and greater than 6 months), sex (male and female), floor (Kutcha and Pukka), clinical manifestation (Diarrhoea and non-diarrhoea) and season were studied. Result: In total 477 (59.12%) buffaloes were infected with B. sulcata in Haryana. According to sex, 68.27% male and 56.35% female were infected with B. sulcata, respectively. Age-wise prevalence in 1-6 months and above 6 months was 60.75% and 57.5%, respectively. Prevalence of infection on Katcha and Pakka floor was 65.85% and 56.13% respectively, with a significant difference. Buffaloes with diarrhoea were more likely to be B. sulcata positive (85%) than the buffaloes without diarrhoea (46.66%) with a significant difference. Buffaloes were having more infection in monsoon (78.18%) followed by summer (58.36%) and winter (38.13) with a significant difference. Animals having diarrhoea with intensity of infection above 10 (+++) cyst/trophozoites were 89.40% (+++) followed by 6-10 (++) cyst/trophozoites 63.50% and 1-5 (+) cyst/trophozoites 39.98%.