Temporal and Spatial Epidemiological Trend of Emerging Livestock Diseases of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India

Abstract

The disease trend of livestock and poultry indicated that very few deadly viral and bacterial diseases are prevalent in the A & N Islands. The prevalence of parasitic diseases is reported to be very high in almost all parts of the Islands. An understanding of the epidemiology of disease is crucial for the development and implementation of effective diagnosis, treatment, control, and managemental practices. Hence, temporal and spatial epidemiological study of the livestock diseases was carried out. Among the parasitic disease, highest number of cases were reported due to ascariasis (34.02%) followed by fascioliasis (29.6%), amphistomiasis (25.5%), and strongyloids (10.9%). The trend showed that parasitic diseases increase during the rainy season (July to December). The secular trend of other diseases indicated that sero-prevalence of Infectious bovine rhinotracheatis (IBR) was found to be 20.58%, which is on increasing trend as compared to last 5 years data. The seroprevalence of Brucella abortus was 12.84% during the period 2000 to 2014.However, during the last 4 years the prevalence is found to be nil. The sero-prevalence of peste des petits virus (54.93%) and bluetongue (77.9%) has been detected for the first time. The high prevalence of PPR and BT in goats is considered to be an alarming situation. The island has become presently free from goat and bovine brucellosis, goat and bovine tuberculosis. However, there is alarming situation of emergence of few bovine and goat viral and bacterial diseases of FMD, PPR BT, orf and leptospirosis. Considering the changing climatic condition and to improve the health and productivity of the livestock and poultry a strict surveillance, and regular monitoring of the important diseases of livestock and poultry required to be carried out.