Humpsore in cattle in Assam Phukan S. Choudhury, Das M., Barkakoty M.R. Department of Veterinary Parasitology, College of Veterinary Science, Assam Agricultural University, Khanapara, Guwahati-781 022, India Abstract An epidemiological study on humpsore in cattle in Assam caused by Stephanofilaria assamensis Pande, 1936 conducted from March 1999 to February 2000 revealed that out of 1189 cattle, 523 (43.98%) were positive for humpsore. Highest infection was observed in the monsoon season (53.43%) followed by post-monsoon (43.16%), pre-monsoon (33.54%) and lowest in winter (26.67%). Males (46.36%) and crossbred animals (50.41%) had a higher infection rate than the females (38.35%) and native cattle (41.14%). Animals below one year of age were free from infection, while animals aged between three to < six years had highest infection rate (57.08%). The infection rate was inversely proportional to the age of the animal. The study revealed that out of the 622 flies collected from the lesions, 305 were Musca pattoni, 199 M. domestica and 118 belonged to the subfamily Limnophaginae. Out of these three, only M. pattoni was found to harbour the larval stage of S. assamensis. The highest (45%) incidence of S. assamensis larvae in M. pattoni was recorded in August and the lowest (16%) in December. No larvae could be found in January and February. Top Keywords Epidemiology, Humpsore, Cattle, Stephanofilarial dermatitis, Stephanofilaria assamensis, Musca pattoni. Top |