Horses and humans interact in many ways including a wide variety of sports competition, police work, agriculture, entertainment and warfare. The transport of horses across national boundaries for shows and performance competitions make the issue of worm control and containment of resistant strains a matter of global importance.
Among the diseases affecting horses, helminths infections are much extended. These parasites continue to be a significant threat to the health of horses. The nature or extent of damage varies with the parasites. They cause loss of nutrients, blood and serious economic losses. The control of nematodes in horses has been challenging for some years and there is general recognition that improvements should be made to commonly used worm control programs. These improvements should be based on scientific knowledge of the parasites, appropriate diagnostic techniques and should take into account the presence or potential selection for resistance to available anthelmintic. Horses of all ages are affected without sex or breed susceptibility. There is, therefore, a need to understand the current status of the prevalence and intensity of infection of helminths in horses
The prevalence and intensity of infection of helminths is influenced by the origin, age, and sex of animals. Horse breeders should regularly contact veterinarians for prophylactic and curative treatment of their animals and also, pasture management should be strictly respected. So, keeping in view the importance and economic losses rendered due to parasitic diseases.The background of this study is to diagnose the prevalence of helminths in race horses through fecal examination techniques.
The study was carried out at the Lahore Race Club for 6 months. A total of 300 horses were examined randomly.Fecal samples were collected from sampled horses and processed by Direct microscopic examination, Salt floatation, McMaster egg counting techniques. The data regarding age of animals, clinical history, feeding, housing and various treatment protocols as well as feedback were entered in the questionnaire. 45 horses were found infected with various parasites with the overall prevalence of 13.33%. Out of 45 horses, 10 horseswere infected with strongylus. 2 with trichostrongylus, 8 with oxyuris, 14 with parascaris, 6 with strongyloides and 5 with mixed infection. So, the prevalence for strongylus, trichostrongylus, oxyuris, parascaris, strongyloides and mixed infection was 3.33%, 0.66%, 2.66%, 4.66%, 2.0% and 1.66% respectively.
Drug trials were carried on positive animals. 5 grams of fecal sample from each animal was collected and drug trials were carried into 4 groups, i.e. A, B, C and D. Each group comprises of 10 animals,Pyrantelpamoate at 19mg/kg B.W. once orally,Ivermectin at 2mg/kg B.W. orally as single dose,Oxfendazoleat 10mg/kg B.W. once, Neem leaves orally at 375mg/kg B.W. once, were used in these four groups. The feces were examined on day 3, 7, 11 and 14 post-medication. The efficacy of the drugs was calculated on the basis of reductions in the number of ova per gram of feces.
The efficacy of pyrantelpamoate was 53.32%, 53.08%, 51.0% and 50.52% on days 3,7,11 and 14 respectively. The efficacy of ivermectin was 71.67%, 93.32% ,97.56% and 98.78% on days 3, 7, 11 and 14 respectively. The efficacy of oxfendazole was61.5%, 69.06%, 72.47%, and74.72% on days 3, 7, 11 and 14 respectively. The efficacy of neem leaves was 41.37%, 40.32%, 38.76% and 38.74% on days 3, 7, 11 and 14 respectively. It was concluded that ivermectin was most effective.
In hematological examination hemoglobin estimation, packed cell volume, total erythrocyte count and differential leukocytic count was performed followed by the collection of 5ml of the blood aseptically. Groups A and D had low hemoglobin values. The values get improved in groups B and C after 4days, consecutive treatment of positive horses, the sample was drawn days from the relative groups to evaluate the effectiveness of treatment for lowering the EPG.
This study helped to control helminthic load. Comparative efficacy of the drugs was also help in choosing the most effective drug against these parasites.