Parasites and parasitic diseases of wildlife in India. 2 . Carnivores and birds

Abstract

The impact of parasites on health and conservation of wildlife is increasingly recognized as an important area. There is a woeful paucity of Indian literature other than sporadic case reports, on captive as well as free-ranging animals/birds. The order Carnivora is a large group having 8 families of which felids and canids contain important members with a substantially shared spectrum of parasites and diseases caused by them. Bulk of  the information relates to helminths, several of which are associated with important disease conditions and resultant morbidity and occasional mortality. These include the trematode Paragonimus, the cestode Echinococcus / hydatid and the nematodes, Toxocara/Toxascaris, Baylisascaris, Ancylostoma, Uncinaria, Galonchus, Dirofilaria, Strongyloides, Spirocerca and Gnathostoma. Almost all of them are transmissible to man and thus have zoonotic significance. Among protozoan maladies, trypanosomiasis, babesiosis and coccidian infections are prominent. Regarding wild birds, the data is derived almost entirely from those in captivity of cages in zoos across the country. Most studies relied on faecal examination but a few necropsy reports were also accessible, including fatal parasitisms. In general, the trematodes were almost entirely Echinostomatids, the cestodes were Davaineids, Dilepidids and Hymenolepidids, and the nematodes comprised Subuluroids, Trichuroids, Spiruroids and Filaroids. In recent years, some dedicated first records at necropsy, have contributed to the information pool. These include ascarid Contracaecum spiculiugerum in a wild pelican, highly pathogenic echinostomid Balfouria monogama in an endangered stork species, and another nodular fluke Chaunocephalus ferox in another species of stork. The most prevalent protozoans in birds are coccidia, some of which are pathogenic. The arthropods are made up of predominantely phthirapteran lice, and less often ticks, mites and fleas. For control, regular anthelmintics and other
antiparasitic agents as employed in their domestic counterparts, are variously reported to be effective.