CLINICO-DIAGNOSTIC STUDIES ON HEPATIC AFFECTIONS OF AGED BUFFALOES

Document Type : Research article

Authors

Animal Health Research Institute (AHRI) Assiut Lab.

Abstract

study was conducted on 100 aged female buffaloes (average 7 years) slaughtered in
the slaughter houses in Assiut Governorate, to clarify the parasitic and bacterial
etiologic agents causing hepatic affections as well as their histopathological picture. Preslaughtering
fecal samples by sedimentation technique revealed that 9 cases (9%) were
infected with Fasciola gigantica and 2 cases (2%) with Fasciola hepatica. Mixed infection
with two species were detecting in 9 cases (9%). Seventy six (76%) of the investigated
animals showed gross hepatic lesion, where 20 cases (26.32%) were infected with adult
Fasciola worm, 40 cases (52.63%) showed chronic hepatitis (26.32% multilobular
cirrhosis; 19.73% biliary cirrhosis and 6.58% Glissonian cirrhosis). The last 16 cases
(21.05%) revealed necrotic hepatic lesions. Bacteriological examination of these
affected liver samples showed that 52 (68.4%) revealed positive bacterial growth on
culture media either in the mixed form (83.17%) or in single form (16.83%). All fasciola
infected livers showed positive bacterial isolation. Multilobular cirrhosis was the most
form of chronic hepatitis showing bacterial isolation (35.64%) followed by biliary
cirrhosis (13.86%). Staphylococcus spp. represented the most prevalent bacterial
isolation (43.56%) followed by E. coli (21.78%) and Actinomyces pyogenes (15,84%).
Streptococcus pyogenes and Enterobacter aerogenes were also recovered in proportion
of 9.90 and 5.94%, respectively. It was concluded that livers of slaughtered aged female
buffaloes showed a very high proportion of gross and histopathological lesions rather

than they were considered as hazardous source of mixed different bacterial especially
they showed positive Fasciola infection.

Keywords