Parasitic infection of some wild animals at Thekkady in Kerala

Abstract

Helminthic infection is wide spread in wild animals and may cause mortality and morbidity of varying degrees. Gour et al. (1979) and Fowler (1986) have stated that the wild animals in the free-living state are generally infected with numerous parasites, but cause little harm to them, unless they are stressed. Therefore, understanding the rate of infection in wild animals is important since infections could result in massive die-offs of wild animals during extreme stress conditions. There are several reports of parasitic infection in zoo animals, but information of the same in free-living wild animals is scanty. This paper reports the parasitic infection in four wild boars, a calf elephant, a sambar deer and a leopard cat which died at Thekkady forest area in Kerala. The parasites collected during postmortem by the first author were preserved in formalin and brought to College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Mannuthy. The specimens were washed, dehydrated, cleared in creosote and examined for specific identity.