Volume: 56 Issue: 2
Year: 2025, Page: 353-362, Doi: https://doi.org/10.51966/jvas.2025.56.2.353-362
Received: March 25, 2025 Accepted: June 5, 2025 Published: June 30, 2025
The paper presents the findings of a systematic study on the occurrence of ascarid infection in wild felines during postmortem examination observed over a period of one year across different forest ranges in the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu, India. A total of 25 wild felines comprising of nine tigers and 16 leopards were screened during the fifteen months period from December 2023 to March 2025. Detailed postmortem examination was conducted by the forest veterinary officer following standard procedures. The worms were collected, labelled, processed as per standard procedures, identified and photographed. Toxocara cati and Toxascaris leonina were the ascarids recorded. Out of the 25 wild felines, six were found infected with ascarids (24%) which included three tigers (33.33%) and three leopards (18.75%). Out of the six infected animals, four were males (66.66%) and two were females (33.33%). Three of the infected animals were below one year of age (50%) and three were of five and above five years of age (50%). Coinfection with T. cati and T. leonina was observed in only one animal which was a five-year-old female tiger. T. cati worms were brownish yellow to cream coloured. A total of 53 ascarid worms were recovered out of which 48 were from tigers and 5 were from leopards. Infected tigers were from Nilakotai (n=2) and Kothagiri (n=1) forest ranges and infected leopards were from Kothagiri (n=1), Pandalur (n=1) and Udagai North (n=1) forest ranges. Gastritis and enteritis were appreciated in infected animals according to the location of the worms. The findings revealed that ascarid infection occurs among wild felines in different forest ranges of The Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu, India in both male and female animals of different age groups. The present observations on the occurrence of ascarid infections will be important to map the status of these nematodes in wild felines and to frame strategies for control of ascarids in these animals.
Keywords: Occurrence, Toxocara cati, Toxascaris leonina, wild felines, The Nilgiris
Alexander, J., Khan, S. and Satheesh, A. 2017. Occurrence of Toxascaris leonina in captive lions at Thiruvananthapuram Zoological gardens. J. Indian Vet. Assoc. 15: 36-38.
Anderson, R.C. 2000. Nematode parasites of vertebrates, their development and transmission. 2nd Edition, Wallingford, UK, CABI Publishing, pp 650.
Bhattacharya, S., Dutta, B., Mondal, U., Mukherjee, J. and Malay, M. 2012. Helminthiasis in a Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) - A Case Report. Explor. Anim. Med. Res. 2: 184-188.
Chakraborty, T. and Maity, B. 1995. Toxocariasis in Himalayan wolf (Canis lupus chanco) pups. Indian J. Vet. Pathol. 19: 136.
Chowdhury, N. 2001. Indian Subcontinent. In: Chowdhury, N. and A. A. Aguirre (Eds.). Helminths of wild life. Science Publishers, Inc. Enfield, pp. 287-368.
Easwaran, K.R., Ravindran, R. and Pillai, K.M. 2003. Parasitic infections of some wild animals at Thekkady in Kerala. Zoos’ Print J. 18: 1030.
Esfandiari, B., Youssefi, M.R. and Abouhosseini, T.M. 2010. First Report of Toxocara cati in Persian Leopard (Panthera pardus saxicolor) in Iran. Glob. Vet. 4: 394-395.
Gallas, M. and Silveira, E.F. 2013. Toxocara cati (Schrank, 1788) (Nematoda, Ascarididae) in different wild feline species in Brazil: new host records. Biotemas. 26: 117-125.
González, P., Carbonell, E., Urios, V. and Rozhnov, V.V. 2007. Coprology of Panthera tigris altaica and Felis bengalensis euptilurus from the Russian far east. J. Parasitol. 93: 948-950.
Kahn, C. and Line, S. 2005. Merck Veterinary Manual 9th ed. New Jersey, US: Merck.
Krone, O., Guminsky, O., Meinig, H., Herrmann, M., Trinzen, M. and Wibbelt, G. 2008. Endoparasite spectrum of wild cats (Felis silvestris Schreber, 1777) and domestic cats (Felis catus L.) from the Eifel, Pfalz region and Saarland, Germany. Eur. J. Wildl. Res. 54: 95- 100.
Kumar, R., Moudgil, A.D., Sharma, A., Sharma, R., Masand, R., Patil, R.D., Asrani, R.K. 2019. Concurrent Helminthosis Engendered Gastroenteritis in a Leopard Panthera pardus. Helminthologia. 56: 323-328.
Maity, B., Chakraborty, G. and Pradhan, K.K. 1994. Toxocariasis in a snow leopard (Panthera uncia). Indian Vet. J. 71: 84-86.
Marathe, R.R., Goel, S.S., Ranade, S.P., Jog, M.M. and Watve, M.G. 2002. Patterns in abundance and diversity of faecally dispersed parasites of tiger in Tadoba National Park, Central India. BMC. Ecol. 2: 1-10.
Nashiruddullah, N. and Chakraborty, A. 2001. Parasites of captive wild carnivores of Assam State Zoo. Intas Polivet. 2: 173–81.
Natalia, E., Sergey, N., Vyacheslav, R., Fedor, V., Antonio, H., J., Andrey, P., Alexander, K. and Ekaterina, P. 2017. Helminths of rare feline species (Felidae) in Siberia and the Russian Far East. Int. J. Res. Ayurveda Pharm. 8: 30-74.
Niranjan, A.S., Singh, V.S., Vatsya, S., Singh, J.L. and Bharadwaj, Y. 2022. Parasitic infection in captive wild animals of Nainital zoological park, India. Pharma. Innov. J. 11: 3308-3313.
Okulewicz, A., Perec-Matysiak, A., Buńkowska, K. and Hildebrand, J. 2012. Toxocara canis, Toxocara cati and Toxascaris leonina in wild and domestic carnivores. Helminthologia. 49: 3-10.
Ozkan, B. 2018. Parasitary infestation in three tiger cubs. J. Ist. Vet. Sci. 2: 38-46.
Parsani, H.R., Momin, R.R., Maradia, M.G. and Singh, V. 2001. A survey of gastrointestinal parasites of captive animals at Rajkot Municipal Corporation Zoo, Rajkot, Gujarat. Zoos’ Print J.16: 604-06.
Patnaik, M.M. and Acharjyo, L.N. 1970. Notes on the helminth parasites of vertebrates in Baranga zoo (Orissa). Indian Vet. J. 47: 723-30.
Peng, Z.W., Ning, Y., Liu, D., Sun Y, Wang, L.X., Zhai, Q.A., Hou, Z.J., Chai, H.L. and Jiang, G.S. 2020. Ascarid infection in wild Amur tigers (Panthera tigris altaica) in China. BMC. Vet. Res. 16: 86.
Pradhan, S., Sharma, D., Subba, B. and Chettri, V. 2011. Preliminary investigation on the parasites of mammals at Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park, Darjeeling. Zoo's Print J. 26: 11-13.
Quadros, R.M.D., Júnior, J.A.C. and Ramos, C.J.R. 2022. Toxocara cati (zeder, 1800) wild felines on the mountainous region of Santa Catarina, Brazil. Pub. Vet. 16: 1-7.
Rimfa, A.G., Ahmed, J.S., Akanbi, B.O., Barde, I.J., Moses, G.D., Tanko, J., Jwander, L., Govwang, P.F. and Dashe, Y.G. 2019. Toxocariasis in a Lioness in Jos Zoo, Nigeria. J. Vet. Biomed. Sci. 2: 114-120.
Shirbhate, M.V. 2007. Quantification of predation and incidence of parasitic infestation in Melghat Tiger Reserve with special reference to Leopards (Panthera pardus). The Bioscan. 2: 41-46.
Shirbhate, M.V. 2008. Quantification of predation and incidence of parasitic infestation in Melghat Tiger Reserve with special reference to Tiger (Panthera tigris tigris). The Bioscan. 2: 229-235.
Shrivastav, A.B. and Singh, K.P. 2012. Tigers blood: Haematological and biochemical studies. Book chapter In Blood Cell; an overview of studies in hematology edited by Terry E. Moschandreou, INTECH publication, Croatia, pp 229-242.
Singh, T., Gupta, M.P., Singla, L.D., Singh, N. and Sharma, D.R. 2006. Prevalence and chemotherapy of gastrointestinal helminthic infections in wild carnivores of Mahendra Choudhury Zoological Park, Punjab. J. Vet. Parasitol. 20: 17-23.
Soulsby, E.J.L. 1982. Helminths, Arthropods and Protozoa of Domesticated animals. 7th Ed. ELBS and Bailliere Tindall, London, 809p.
Thawait, V.K., Maiti, S.K. and Dixit, A.A. 2014. Prevalence of gastro-intestinal parasites in captive wild animals of Nandan Van Zoo, Raipur, Chhattisgarh. Vet. World. 7: 448-451.
Varun, K. 2005. Tiger Conservation in India. New Delhi: Centre for Civil Society, 62p.
Virta, M., Huitu, O., Heikkinen, J., Holmala, K. and Jokelainen, P. 2022. High Toxocara cati prevalence in wild, free-ranging Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) in Finland, 1999-2015. Int. J. Parasitol. Parasites Wildl. 17: 205-210.
Wallach, J.D. and Boever, W.J. 1983. Diseases of Exotic animals, Medical and Surgical Management, W.B. Saunders Company, Philadelphia, 1159p.
Williams, E.S. and Thorne, E.T. 1996. Infectious and parasitic diseases of captive carnivores, with special emphasis on the black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes). Rev. Sci. Tech. 15: 91-114.
Yasuda, N., Akuzawa, M., Maruyama, H., Izawa, M. and Doi, T. 1993. Helminths of the Tsushima leopard cat (Felis bengalensis euptilura). J. Wildl. Dis. 29: 153-155.
Youssefi, M.R., Hoseini, S.H. and Esfandiari, B. 2010. Intestinal parasite of Persian leopard (Panthera pardus saxicolor) in Iran. World J. Zool. 5: 122-124.
© 2025 Jeeva et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in
any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Jeeva, K., Aravind, M., Rajesh Kumar, K., Bino Sundar, S.T. and Richard Jagatheesan, P.N. 2025. Occurrence
of ascarid infection in wild felines across different forest ranges in The Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu, India.
J. Vet. Anim. Sci. 56 (2):353-362