ENZOOTIC CEREBROSPINAL NEMATODIASIS OR KUMRI OR LUMBAR PARALYSIS IN SHEEP, GOAT & HORSES
Cerebrospinal nematodiasis is a nematode parasitic disease of animals characterized by loss of balance, incoordination, paresis of limbs, drooping of ears or eyelid and eosinophilic encephalitis.Also known as neurofilariasis, setariasis and lumbar paralysis and in horses “Kumri”.Adult parasites are harmless while the immature forms occur in brain and spinal cord of sheep, goat and horses.Characteristic Symptoms are Paralysis of limbs, Incoordination of limbs and Loss of balance.
Lumbar Paralysis in small ruminants is characterized by sudden appearance of hind quarter weakness (leading to incoordination and swaying back gait) or paralysis (leading to recumbency) with or without systemic involvement (absence of fever and normal appetite and other vital parameters) depending upon the causal factor(s). Traumatic spinal injury, vitamin and mineral deficiency, streptococcal infection and neoplasia (Emoto 1992) and aberrant migration by neurotropic nematodes such as Setaria spp. and Parelaphostrongylus tenuis (Ogunremi et al. 2002) are considered as causal factors for occurrence of lumbar paralysis in sheep, goat, cattle, horse, elk etc. The disease entity caused by the latter is known as Cerebrospinal Nematodiasis (CSN).
The species occur in the peritoneal cavity of cattle, buffalo,. the adult worms may be found in the lesions in the urinary bladder. immature worms are found in the central nervous system (CNS) of abnormal host like sheep, goat, and horse and cause a typical disease called Enzootic cerebrospinal nematodosis.
Clinical signs :
Muscular weakness, incoordination and ataxia leading to paralysis and death. circling movement, swelling in the leg, locomotor disturbance in hind leg.Enzootic cerebrospinal nematiodiosis caused by seteria digitata during summer and rainy season when the mosquito vector are active.
The affected animal suffer from acute focal encephalomyelomalacia.The disease is commonly called as ‘cerebrospinal nematodosis’ or lumbar paralysis in sheep and goat and kumri in horse.
Compiled & Shared by- Team, LITD (Livestock Institute of Training & Development)
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