Assessing Prevalence of Parasitic Diseases at Swamp Deer (Rucervus duvaucelii duvaucelii) Livestock Interface at Jhilmil Jheel Conservation Reserve and Kishanpur Wildlife Sanctuary

Abstract

The interaction between wildlife, livestock and other domesticated animals is existent since the domestication of species. This has seen an increase in recent past owing to increased anthropogenic dependence on natural habitats. The domesticated animals, maintained at high population densities, have the potential to act as reservoirs of disease for wild animals. Parasitic infection both micro and macro; in wildlife at the wildlife - livestock interface, can affect conservation efforts by "spillover" and "spillback". Combined with other stressors, disease in wildlife can impact reproduction, survival and fitness, thereby affecting abundance and diversity of wildlife populations. Especially vulnerable are species with limited abundance and range. Macro-parasites especially the helminths, flukes and various ectoparasites have life cycles characterized by distinct life stages and are opportunistic In nature and can infect a large number of host species. The present study focuses on interactions between Swamp deer and livestock at two sites namely the jhilmil Jheel (JJ) in the Jhilmil Jheel Conservation Area, Haridwar Forest Division and and Jadi Tal (JT) in the Kishanpur Wildlife Sanctuary. Swamp deer is a vulnerable, flagship deer species from the Indian subcontinent, with distribution restricted to isolated localities in north and central India and parts of southwestern Nepal (Qureshi et al. 2004). Therefore any factor exacerbating threats for population decline of the species need careful evaluation. This work is a first structured parasitic prevalence study at Swamp deer - livestock interface, from two of the eight prime locations (Jhilmil Jheel Conservation reserve and Kishanpur Forest Division) reported for the northern population of swamp deer in India. The study included an estimation of population size of swamp deer and livestock and their space use patterns. Coprological examination of both swamp deer pellets and livestock dung was used to assess the prevalence and load of gastro-intestinal parasites. The result revealed that population of Swamp Deer was 153 and 435 ; while livestock counts were 84 and 35 respectively for Jhilmil Jheel and Jadi Tal during the stud) period. At Jhilmil Jheel a significant spatial overlap was observed between the two groups was observed at Jadi Tal. The overall prevalence of parasitic ova in the dung sample of swamp deer and livestock population was higher at JJ as compared to JT (Swamp deer 15.38% and 12.69% and Livestock 95.4% aand 60% respectively). The parasitic ova reported from both the sites included Strongyles, Trichostrongyle (direct life cycle), Amphistomes; Fasciola; and Moniezia (mediated through intermediate host).Difference was observed for the parasite species richness and prevalence between swamp deer and livestock at Jhilmil Jheel and Jadi Tal. Parasitic ova with simple life cycle dominated over the parasites, with intermediate hosts at Jhilmil Jheel. Analysis of parasitic load based on Mc Master's technique (Soulsby , 1982) revealed significantly higher load of parasitic ova at Jhilniil Jheel in swamp deer as compared to Jhadi Tal