Schistosomiasis is one of the major diseases of public health and socio-economic importance in the developing countries of the world. Among human parasitic diseases, Schistosorniasis ranks second to malaria in tern-is of world wide public health risk. Keeping in view the importance of disease, the study was conducted to record the month wise and season wise prevalence of Schistosorniasis in buffaloes in four districts of the Punjab, province ie., Lahore, Sargodha, Kasur and Sheikhupura. The present study comprises of four parts.
Part I: deals with epidemiology of Schistosomiasis in buffaloes. Overall prevalence of Schistosomiasis in buffaloes, different farms of Punjab province indicated that infection was the highest (17%) at Kasur district followed by Sheikhupura (14.83), then Lahore (14.6%) and the lowest (13.66%) at Sargodha. The highest month wise prevalence was recorded during August (25.5%) followed by July where as the lowest during December and January.
Infection in buffaloes was higher in animals over two years of age (1 9%) than animals below two years of age (5%) in all the four districts of Punjab. The prevalence was higher in females (15.98%) than male (9.48%). There is variation in the prevalence as there is difference in the environmental and managemental condition of the area. For the serodiagnosis i.e. ELISA was used, the results indicated that the prevalence was lesser than the faecal examination because this was more specific and sensitive than the faecal examination.
Part 2: deals with the prevalence and ecology of snails. Various species of snails which act as the intermediate host of the Schistosomes were collected from the study area. The e of infection in the snails and role of cercariae in transmission of the disease was studied. A total of 10418 snails were collected of these 13.51 per cent were found to be infected. Among these 2350 were collected from Kasur district with infection rate of 14.51 percent followed, by Sheikhupura 2882 (13.6%) then Sargodha 2709 (13.40%) and the lowest at Lahore 2477 (12.51%). At Kasur district, genus wise prevalence of snails with infection rate indicated that Oncomelonia, indoplanorbis and Bullinus are the predominant genera with infection rate of 31.79, 17.10 and 14.46 percent respectively. However the highest number of the snails collected belonging to the genera Indoplanorbis. At Sheikhupura district, genus wide prevalence of snail indicated that Bullinus, Lymnaea, Indoplanorbis and Physa are the four prominent snails with infection rate of 24.74, 20.57, 14.66 and 13.84 percent respectively. At Sargodha district, genus wise prevalence of snails indicated that Lymnaea, Indoplanorbis, Bullinus and Physa are the four prominent snails with infection rate of 25.09, 14.29, 14.28 and 16.77 percent respectively. At Lahore district, genus wise prevalence of snails indicated that Bullinus Lymnaea, Physa and Indoplanorbis are the four prominent snails with infection rate of 23.37, 18.96, 13.97 and 12.70 percent respectively.While the prevalence at the snail level the Chi square value is 242.944 and the P-Value is 0.0000 1 which is highly significant.
Part 3: deals with the meteorological data ie, temperature, humidity, rainfall and pan evaporation with prevalence of snails and parasites. The temperature and rain fall play very important role in the spread of disease. The ideal temperature ranges form 22-25 °C where development within snail takes place in an efficient manner similarly humidity
f ranges from 55-70% is ideal for the development of the snail and the parasite. Rainfall is very important for the spread of the disease. There is a positive correlation of disease incidence to maximum and minimum temperature, humidity, and rainfall and pan evaporation. It was seen that during summer and autumn, optimum temperature, relative
humidity and rainfall play an important role for rapid propagation of the parasitic life

Part 4: deals with therapeutic trials against Schistosomiasis in buffaloes. A total of 150 animals (140 infected and 10 animals, normal) age ranged 5-9 years and of both sexes naturally infected with Schistosorniasis were used in thirteen controlled experiments. The efficacy of certain indigenous drugs, including Nigella sativa (Kalongi) , Caesalpinia
Crista (Karangwa), Lagenaria siceraria seeds (Kadoo ke Beej), Sausseria lappa (Qushte-e-Shreen) and Praziquanlel was compared with each other and control. Efficacy was quantified by determining the difference of egg per gram faeces (EPG) pre and post treatment. After the single dose of 50, 75 and 100 mg 1kg body weight of Nigella sativa (Kalongi) reduced EPG by 65.85, 68.29 and 71.79 per cent, respectively. After the second dose the respective reduction in EPG was 85.36, 92.68 and 94.87 percent. Caesalpenia crista at three dosage levels i.e.50, 75 and 100 mgI kg body weight caused 46.34, 53.65 and 59.52 percent reduction respectively while the reduction in EPO after second dose was 82.92, 90.24 and 92.85 percent respectively. Lagenaria siceraria Seed at three dosage levels i. e., 50, 100 and 150 mg/ kg body weight caused the reduction in EPG reduction 47.61, 52.63 and 64.10 percent respectively, while after second dose, counts as the reduction 80.95, 86.84 and 92.30 percent respectively. Sausseria lappa at three dosage levels i.e., 100, 150 and 200 mg/ kg body caused EPG reduction as under 50.00, 53.48 and 56.09 percent respectively, while after second dose the reduction in EPG count was 71.42, 81.39 and 85.36 percent respectively. Where as Praziquantel at the dose of 10 mg/body weight caused reduction in EPO 66.66% while after the second dose the reduction in EPG count was 97.43 percent. The efficacy order was Praziquantel, Nigella saliva, Caesalpinia crista, Lagenaria siceraria and Sausseria lappa. No side effects with any drug were noted. All animals showed clinical improvement after the treatment.