Vol. 9, Special Issue 1 (2024)

Author(s): Poonam Choudhary, Devendra Prasad Pateer, Hira Ram and Rajat Garg

Abstract: Trypanosoma evansi, the causative agent of surra, is a hemoflagellate protozoa which is mechanically transmitted by hematophagous flies. The present study was undertaken to record occurrence of T. evansi infection in bovines of Bareilly district, Uttar Pradesh during July, 2023 to December, 2023 using conventional and molecular techniques .Blood samples were collected from 132 bovines (94 cattle and 38 buffaloes) of different dairy farms and individual livestock owners of Bareilly. Examination of Giemsa stained thin blood smears revealed that 5 samples (3.78%) were positive for T. evansi out of 132 animals examined, while T. evansi paraflagellar rod 2 (PFR2) gene based PCR revealed that 15 samples were positive for T. evansi DNA. The overall occurence of T. evansi in bovines of Bareilly district was found to be 11.36%, with the 8.51% and 18.42% infection rate in cattle and buffaloes, respectively. The sex wise occurence was reported to be 12.84% (14/109) in females and 4.34% (1/23) in males, whereas age wise occurence of try panosomosis was found as 15.94% in age group of >5 years and 8.51% in age group of 2-5 years while none of the animals below two years of age were positive. These findings suggest that the bovines in Bareilly district are acting as carriers of T. evansi infection and there is a need to coduct a large scale epidemiological surveys using highly sensitive and specific molecular techniques to identify such carrier animals, so that effective management of T. evansi infection in bovines could be implemented.