VERMINOUS PNEUMONIA IN ANIMALS IN BENGAL
By *RAM NARAIN MOHAN, †Veterinary Investigation Officer, Bengal
(Received for publication on 24 September 1947)
E XPERIENCE gained during the last decade or so, has taught us, that worms are an important
cause of pneumonia in domestic animals in India. The lung-worms (Metastrongyles) have been
encountered frequently in different parts of the country and in many places they have been found to
cause serious losses, particularly among the goats. The observations made in Bengal show that
conditions in this Province are more or less the same as in other parts of India. These observations
especially those made during the last five years, are briefly described below.
VERMINOUS PNEUMONIA IN CATTLE
Dictyocaulus viviparus is the universal parasite of the bovine lung and is known to cause much
damage and deaths in calves. It has also been held responsible, especially in Europe, for serious
occasional outbreaks of pneumonia in adult cattle. This worm has been frequently encountered in
all parts of India, but very little information is available regarding the extent of damage done by it.
The following notes concern the position with regard to this worm in Bengal.
Lung-worms in calves. On several occasions these worms were found in the bronchi of slaugh-
tered calves which were discontinued from 'pox lymph' production. They were also encountered
on a few occasions during post-mortem examination of some dairy calves. Generally speaking, the
infestation was light, but, while macroscopic lesions in the lungs were seldom detected in the slaughter-
house, a varying extent of consolidation, at least partly due to the presence of the worms, was often
noticed in the lungs of dairy calves. Deaths among calves in dairy herds and outside have not been
systematically investigated in Bengal, so that it is not possible to guess the extent of damage which
lung-worms may cause. Although there are no known instances of deaths due to verminous pneu-
monia in calves in this Province, there is reason to suspect that these worms play their rôle at least
in undermining the health of the calves.
Lung-worms in adult cattle. Lung-worms were seldom encountered in adult cattle in the slaughter-
house and when found, they were generally present in small numbers. Examination of a few carcases
of cattle dying of different diseases also did not reveal any.
In 1942-43 [Mohan, 1943], however, there occurred a serious outbreak of pneumonia which
killed many cows of a big commercial dairy herd in Calcutta. Investigations conducted showed
that the primary cause was Dictyocaulus viviparus. In view of its interesting nature and the fact
that such occurrence has not been previously recorded in India, it is described somewhat fully below.
The outbreak was the first of its kind that ever occurred on this farm. There was reason to
suspect that the disease was imported with a batch of cows purchased from the Punjab in May 1942.
By October 1942, several cows were noticed affected and six cows, all belonging to the May lot. died
of pneumonia. In the subsequent months, a gradually increasing number of animals were noticed
to be coughing and 32 more cows died out of a total of about 200. Besides, some 80 cows, majority
affected and many in advanced stages, were sold off. It was not, however, until February 1943, i.e.,
several months after the first deaths, that the matter was reported to the Veterinary Department,
so that the investigation and control could not be undertaken earlier.
On account of this great delay in the reporting of the outbreak and the absence of reliable
records concerning the earlier cases, it is not possible to state when actually the disease started and
when the first death due to pneumonia occurred. The description given in this note is, therefore,
confined to such observations which are considered more or less authentic. In the beginning, the
number of cattle showing prominent clinical evidence of the disease was small and the first few deaths
occurred at intervals of several days and weeks. Later, however, especially towards the end of the
prolonged course of the outbreak in the herd, the number of affected animals increased considerably
and deaths occurred at much smaller intervals.
* New Veterinary Investigation Officer, United Provinces, Lucknow.
†Working on a scheme partly financed by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research.
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