PARASITES AND PARASITIC DISEASES IN DOMESTIC REINDEER OF YAKUTIA

Abstract

Reindeer husbandry is the basis of the economy and way of life, the traditional occupation of the indigenous inhabitants of the North, Siberia and the Far East, and the most important branch of animal husbandry in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). Reindeer husbandry is associated with the cultural traditions, lifestyle and economy of the small national communities of the north. Yakutia is the traditional centre and the region of breeding domestic reindeer. Further development of reindeer husbandry, and increasing of the productivity and profitability of reindeer husbandry in Yakutia are impossible without proper organization and effective protection of domestic reindeer from various diseases, including parasitic ones, which cause significant damage to reindeer farms in the Republic. Reindeer are infected with 37 species of helminths. The results of the research of the authors of the article showed that all the studied deer had different types of helminths, and 100% were infected with gadfly larvae. The most frequent parasitic diseases in deer are monieziasis, larval echinococcosis, parenchymal, muscular and serosal cysticercosis, dictyocaulosis, nematodirellosis and elaphostrongylosis; moreover other parasitoses – edemagenosis and cephenomyosis – are recorded in 100% of deer. The authors of the article consider the infection of deer with larvae of subcutaneous and nasopharyngeal gadflies to be the number one problem.