Gastrointestinal Parasites of Cattle in Central Java

Corresponding Author: Penny Humaidah Hamid Department of Parasitology, Veterinary Medicine, Gadjah Mada University, Jl. Fauna No 2. Karangmalang, Yogyakarta Indonesia Ph: +62 274 560861 Fax: +62 274 560861 Email: penny_hamid@ugm.ac.id Abstract: Gastrointestinal parasites are the main cause of losses of cattle farms including feed conversion-failure and even death of heavily infected animals. We have conducted a random examination of 455 cows in the Special Region of Yogyakarta-Central Java from March to June 2016. The examined animals were Ongole and Local Cattle (PO) cross breed, Simmental breed, Limousin breed, Simmental and PO cross breed, PO and Limousin cross breed, Friesian Holstein breed (FH), Brahman breed, Angus breed, Angus and Brahman cross breed and Bali breed. McMaster technique, saturated NaCl flotation technique and Parfitt and Banks technique were used simultaneously in this study in order to identify the parasitic stages present in the coprological samples. The test results showed that approximately 65.93% of the cattle population was infected by parasitic stages, such as: Strongylidae (54.00%), Fasciola sp. (17.00%), Eimeria spp. (15.33%), Strongyloides sp. (4.67%), Paramphistomum sp. (4.00%), Trichuris sp. (3.67%) and Moniezia sp. (1.33%). Six different Eimeria species were identified: E. bovis, E. auburnensis, E. bukidnonensis, E. canadaensis, E. zurnii and E. cylindrica. Most of the animals presented monoinfections (79.33%), but concomitant infections were also observed (2 different parasites: 17.67%; 3 different parasites: 2.33%; more than 3 different parasites: 0.67%). With this work we proved the high level of parasitism in cattle of Central Java and we intensively highlight the need to find adequate control measures against parasitic diseases in order to reduce the detrimental impact of parasitosis in cattle.


Introduction
Gastrointestinal parasitic diseases are the major cause of economic losses in domestic animals worldwide (Corwin, 1997;McLeod, 1995;Grisi et al., 2014;Bandyopadhyay et al., 2010). Decreased inappentence lead to problems of feed and water intake, whilst protein losses due to gastrointestinal damage diminishes availabilities for growth. These problems combination caused impaired amino acids and minerals metabolism with end up in reduced carcass quality. Additionally, delayed maturity for reproduction and extended calving interval lower milk production can be observed in consequence (Charlier et al., 2009;Parkins and Holmes, 1989). The costs with frequent usage of anti-parasitic drugs, the poor feed conversation rates, the reduction of reproductive and/or productive performances, together with the possibility of drug resistance due to indiscriminate treatments with anti-parasitic drugs, represent some of the factors contributing to the reduced efficacy in cattle production. Indonesia has a high demand of meat in order to fulfill 300 million people needs. Nowadays, self-sufficient production of cattle meat in Indonesia is not possible since meat production is below the national demands, especially due to animal health status and some managerial problems, together with losses in productivity (MoARI, 2011). Therefore, meat has to be imported from abroad since years (MoARI, 2015) implicating a high price of meat that urge the Indonesian government to launch meat selfsufficiency programs (MoARI, 2010). Indonesian government planned to increase population of indigenous, local and commercial breed cattle through several strategic plans i.e.,: push live carcass weight from 150 to 176 kgs, weaning rate from 24 to 30% and calving interval from 21 months to 16-18 months (MoARI, 2011). As gastrointestinal parasites hamper the efficient production of cattle products (e.g., meat, milk) it is mandatory to investigate the prevalence of parasitosis in Indonesian cattle farms in order to improve management and production results. This study aims to describe the prevalence of gastrointestinal parasites commonly found in Central Java, the most populated islands in Indonesia. The data provide baseline knowledge of infection levels in the region and support decision-making for control strategies.

Materials and Methods
Sample collection was carried out for four months, from March to June 2016. Stool samples were collected directly from rectum and faeces were stored in plastic containers and refrigerated at 4°C until the time of examination. Random sampling was performed in several districts of Central Java and Special Region of Yogyakarta provinces i.e.,: Kulon Progo, Gunung Kidul, Bantul, Yogyakarta, Magelang and Boyolali. These sampling sites included 7°47.44 south latitude and 110°8.24 eastern longitude ordinates. Cattle breed included in the study correspond to those that are commonly farmed in Central Java.

Results
Parasites examination showed 65.93% of the total 455 cows were infected. Single parasite infection reached 79.33% (53/300) of the animals and the rest presented concomitant infections by two or three or more parasites (Fig. 1). Different types of parasites ova and Eimeria spp. unsporulated oocysts found in the study are shown in Table 1 and Fig. 2. Artificial insemination programs generate several crossbreeds commonly found in traditional farms i.e.,: Ongole-Local Cattle (PO) cross breed, Simmental-PO cross breed, PO-Limousin cross breed and Angus-Brahman cross breed. The number of infected animals according to their breed is represented in Table 2. In most of the cases, parasitic infestation reaches 50% or more animals in all sampled breeds.

Discussion
With this study, we demonstrated highly parasitic infections in cattle in the region of Central Java, the most populated island in Indonesia. Our findings are consistent with other reports from various tropicaldeveloping countries (Nginyi et al., 2001;Mejia et al., 2003;Tan et al., 2014;Hussain et al., 2014). This study show that infections with nematodes was common and especially Strongyles were the most frequent compared with other types of worms.
Different risk factors have been described to influence the outcome of parasitic infections in cattle. One of the most important risk factors contributing to high parasitism of tropical areas is likely the constant high temperatures, which favors development of parasitic stages. Temperature range of Central Java is around 20-27°C with little variation throughout the year as it has equatorial climate. In the rainfall season the humidity increases 70-85%. For example for Haemonchus contortus high rainfall is related to a proportional increase of the number of migrated L3 from fecal material to pasture (Santos et al., 2012;Silva et al., 2008).
Besides temperature, the management system of the farms also significantly contributes to a higher prevalence of gastrointestinal parasitism (Kumar et al., 2013;Barger, 1997). Almost all animals sampled in this investigation were reared under traditional methods of husbandry in smallholder farmer systems. Animals were fed with forage, i.e., rice straws, from the same land. In Central Java, the forage rotation is difficult to perform due to narrowing land for residential, road and government purposes, complicating parasites control measures (Stuedemann et al., 2004;Larsson et al., 2007). Moreover, feeding imbalance composition leads to malnutrition, which contributes to the lack of immunity against parasites (Hughes and Kelly, 2006). This risk factor may also increase animal susceptibility toward mixed infections (Fig. 1). For trematode infestation, Fasciola sp. was the most prevalent parasite followed by Paramphistomum sp. This result confirms fasciolosis in cattle often found during Eid al-Adha when people sacrifice cattle for human consumptions (personal observations). Since the majority of Java residents are Moslem, thousands of cattle are slaughtered in one to three days, in order to fulfill religious festivities. Due to the zoonotic potential of fasciolosis, particularly at this time of the year, several infected livers (Fig. 4A) have to be discarded from human food chain to prevent human consumption. The implication of fasciolosis is displacement of hepatocytes with fibrocytes (arrows in Fig. 4B) and lead to development of connective tissue in almost all liver areas (arrows in Fig. 4C). Intensive guidance from institutions is a compulsory for public health importance during this event.
Clinical coccidiosis was rarely found in this investigation. However, subclinical coccidial infection was probable due to infections of one or more species of Eimeria (Fig. 3). This also indicates that the infestation with coccidia can still occur in adult cattle in accordance with previous reports (Sudhakara Reddy et al., 2015). Eimeria bovis and E. zuernii were reported here and they are noted as the most pathogenic species of Eimeria affecting cattle. Even low infectious doses of E. bovis oocysts (10 4 ) and E. zuernii (10 5 ) result in severe haemorrhagic enteritis with weight losses, dehydration or death of heavily infected animals (Mundt et al., 2005;Hermosilla et al., 1999).
Our study reveals the importance of gastrointestinal parasitism in cattle in Central Java. To overcome the negative impact of such parasitic diseases, efficient control measures should be implemented. Administration of the same anthelminthic substances for long time without proper evaluation may lead to considerable costs for traditional farms and raise the possibility of resistance to the substances (Mejia et al., 2003;Muniz-Lagunes et al., 2015). In addition, gastrointestinal diseases has an impact in animal health status that usually implicates a reduction in animals performance, reducing for example daily weight gains, which hampers government's efforts in the national meat self-sufficiency program.

Conclusion
This study showed a high rate of gastrointestinal parasitic infections in traditional farms in Central Java. These results indicate the need to establish efficient control measures that improve animal health and performance by lowering the gastrointestinal parasitism of cattle.