Effect of different levels of nutrition on experimental bubalian trypanosomosis

Buffalo calves (16), male, 8-12 month-old and procured locally were divided into 4 equal groups of which 2 were optimal-fed and the remaining 2 were u nder-fed to study the effect of different levels of nutrition on experiment al bubalin trypanosomosis. The animals of 2 groups, 1 from optimal-fed and other from under-fed, were infected with Trypanosoma evansi, buffalo isolat e on day 35 post-feeding with different levels of nutrition. Trypanosomosis was successfully induced in both the groups. The infected buffalo calves o f both the groups did not show much difference between the onset of parasit aemia and pyrexia but parasitaemia and mortality were more in under-fed tha n in optimal-fed. On day 98 post-feeding, the under-fed buffalo calves gain ed less body weight (46.9%) compared to the optimal-fed, and following T. e vansi infection live-weight gains further lowered in the former (37.5%) tha n in the later (14.2%). The significant (P<0.01) decrease in haemoglobin (g %), packed-cell volume (%) and total erythrocytic counts (million/mm(3)) o n day 63 postinfection (PI) indicated development of anaemia in buffalo cal ves of both the infected groups. The reduction (%) in haematological indice s was higher in under-fed than that in the optimal-fed. Serum glucose (mg % ) levels also decreased significantly in the under-fed on day 63 PI. Microe lement status revealed significantly lower values of serum iron in T. evans i infected buffalo calves of both the groups and decrease (%) was higher in under-fed (6.1%)than that in optimal-fed (2.4%). The under-fed buffalo cal ves also showed 4.81% lower values of serum copper than the optimal-fed. Th us, it is evident that poor nutritional level feeding aggravates the harmfu l effects of T. evansi infection in buffalo calves.