Journal of Global Resources
Volume 4 (01)January 2018
ISSN: 2395-3160 (Print), 2455-2445 (Online)

Page 107-111

16POPULATION DYNAMICS OF GASTROINTESTINAL HELMINTHS OF DOMESTIC RATS
TRAPPED FROM RESIDENTIAL AREAS OF PIPAR CITY TEHSIL, JODHPUR, RAJASTHAN
Pankaj Nama1 and Harshvardhan Singh2
1Assistant Professor, Department of Zoology, Jai Narain Vyas University, Jodhpur, India
Email: pankajnama20@yahoo.com

2Research Scholar, Department of Zoology, Jai Narain Vyas University, Jodhpur, India
Email: harsh.singh311091@gmail.com

Abstract: A helminthological survey of 139 domestic rats was conducted to investigate thepopulation dynamics of gastrointestinal (GI) helminth infections in Pipar City Tehsil between March
2015 to February 2016. Rats were randomly collected from different residential sites within Pipar CityTehsil. Trapped rats were humanly sacrificed and examined for recovery of helminths using standard
methods. Identification of helminths was based on key morphological characteristics. In the total of
139 rats sampled in the study, 96 were positive for helminth infection. The helminth species identified
were having two cestodes (V. fraterna, H. diminuta) and three nematodes (A. pakistanika, R. ratti andS. muris). It was concluded from this study is that domestic rats harbor five species of helminthparasites. Incidence, density, index of infection and dominance are obtained highest of V. fraterna
and followed by A. pakistanica, H. diminuta, R. ratti and S. muris. While highest intensity obtained ofA. pakistanika and followed by V. fraterna, H. diminuta, S. muris, R. ratti.
Keywords: Population Dynamics, Gastrointestinal, Helminth, Domestic rats.
Introduction
The helminthological work in India usually related to systematics and taxonomy, including thehistochemical and morphological studies. Despite, the recent studies include the statically surveys
and ecological studies of rats. The helminth fauna of rats includes variety of species such as
cestodes, nematodes and trematodes. The studies on helminthic infections in rats have been carriedout inside and outside India. Roman (1951) & Bernard (1963) described the percentage infection ofAspiculuris tetraptera in Mus musculus. Tenora (1967), Tenora et al. (1973) & Tenora and Zejda(1974) carried ecological studies on helminths infecting small rodents. Behnke (1975) described
infection of A. tetraptera in M. musculus according to the sex of host. Nama & Parihar (1976) carriedout the quantitative & qualitative study of helminth infections in R. rattus rufencens. Parihar andNama (1977) shows parasitic burden of desert micromammals of Rajasthan. Malsawmtluangi &Tandon (2009) describes helminth parasite spectrum in rodent hosts from Mizoram. Shashi et. al.
(2013) studied zoonotic cestodes of three commensal rats in Dehradun. Most of all researchers
studied helmith fauna of rats and shows diversity, quantitative and qualitative analysis of helminths
but the present work deals with to investigate the population dynamics of gastrointestinal helminths
with parameters of incidence, intensity, density, index of infection and dominance in domestic rats ofPipar City Tehsil.
Material and Methods
Study area: Pipar City is a city and a municipality in Jodhpur district (Rajasthan) and 65 km awayfrom Jodhpur. Its geographical coordinates are 26° 23' 8" North and 73° 32' 16" East. This survey
was carried out in some rural and urban areas of Pipar City Tehsil. It has an area of 108666 hectares(1086.66 Sq. Km.) and a total population of 193035 according to census 2011. (36,810 in Pipar Cityurban area + 1,56,225 in rural areas).

107Study Design
For this study live rats were caught by using wired cages which were placed at night with baits eg.
Bread, biscuits and chapatti (roti) with the pickle. Then hosts were transported to the Parasitology
laboratory, Department of Zoology for parasitological examinations. To collect the GI tract forhelminth recovery, trapped rats were euthanized according to standard procedure (Leary et al., 2013)
and subjected to standard postmortem examination. (Fiette & Slaoui, 2011). The helminths recoveredfrom GI tract were kept in normal saline (0.9 percent NaCl) and then preserved in 70 percent alcohol
containing 5 percent glycerin. For identification, helminths were cleared in lactophenol and stainedwith aceto alum carmine. Then mounted on glass slide and identified using key morphologicalcharacters described by Okorafor et al., 2012. Though the protocols of experimental animals werepermitted by Institutional Animal Ethical Committee (Reg. No. 1646/GO/Ere/S/CPCSEA)
Statistical Analysis
To do statistical analysis, all helminths were counted and obtained data were subjected to following
formulae used by Rajendra et al., 2009.
Incidence- The frequency of infection of the host by the parasite expressed in terms of percentage.
infected host× 100
Incidence =total host examined
Intensity- The quotient forms the no. of parasites divided by no. of the infected host.
no. of parasites obtained
Intensity =no. of infected hosts
Density- The concentration of the parasite in term of the parasite (single host) per unit space.
no. of parasites collected
Density =no. of hosts examinedIndex of infection- It is expressed by the formula of Tenoza & Zejda (1974)
A×B
Z =
C
Where Z= index of infection, A= no. of parasites collected, B= no. of hosts infected, C= no. of host
examined.
Dominance percentage- The monthly burden of a particular species to its annual burden
particular helminth burden
Dominance percent =× 100
total helminth burden
ResultOut of 139 rats examined in the study, 96 were positive for helminth infections. Helminth species
were two cestodes and three nematodes. No trematodes were found during the study period. The
two tapeworms belonged to family Hymenolepididae (H. diminuta, V. fraterna). In findings, V. fraterna
was the most commonest cestode and H. diminuta was least frequent. The three species ofnematodes were from two families Oxyuridae (A. pakistanika & S. muris) and Rictulariidae (R. ratti).
For statistical analysis the no. of host examined, no. of host infected and the no. of helminth species
found, form the basic data for calculation and results are expressed as incidence, intensity, density,index of infection and dominance percentage as shown in Table 1. The total no. of domestic rats
examined (139), 96 were infected with the total of 943 helminths (Table 1). The statistical data
analysis showed that domestic rats have a total of 69.06 percent incidence in total examined hosts.
The incidence of V. fraterna infection was high during the study period and S. muris was leastincident. Total helminth intensity was 40.75. The intensity of A. pakistanika was highest (13.57) andR. ratti have least intensity (2.88). The study revealed the total helminth density was 6.78. V. fraterna
has the highest density (2.72) and S. muris had lowest (0.18) in the study period. The total index ofinfection of helminths was 1.20. V. fraterna has the highest index of infection (0.54) and S. muris hasleast (0.01). In total helminth infection V. fraterna was most dominant helminth whereas S. muris wasleast dominant during the study period. (Figure 1)

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Figure 1: Dominance Percentage of Helminths in Domestic Rats

5% 3%

40%

V. fraterna
H. diminuta

37%

A. pakistanika
R. ratti
S. muris

15%

The overall incidence, intensity, density, index of infection and dominance of helminths ispresented in Table 1. Out of 139 rats examined in the study, 96 were positive for helminths with aninfection rate of 69.06 percent. Five helminths species were recovered, 2 cestode and 3 nematodes,
no trematode were found. Two cestodes belonged to one family hymenolepidiae (H. diminuta, V.
fraterna). The most and least common cestode was V. fraterna and H. diminuta respectively shown inTable 1. The three species of nematodes were belonged to two families. Oxyuridae (A. pakistanica
and S. muris) and Rictulariidae (R. ratti). A. pakistanica recorded as commonest and most numerous
nematode. S. muris was least numerous nematode. All helminth species were located in the intestineand caecum of their hosts.
Figure 2: Comparison of Total Host Examined and Total Helminths Recovered

400
350
300
250
200150no. of host examined100

total no. of helminth

500109

Table 01: Population Dynamics of Helminths in Domestic Rats
Helminthspecies
CestodesV. fraterna
H. diminuta
Nematodes
A. pakistanika
R. ratti
S. muris

No. ofhost
examined

No. ofhost
infected

Total no.
ofhelminth

Incidence

Intensity

Density

Index ofinfection

Dominance

139
139

28
18379
142

20.143885
12.94964

13.53571
7.888889

2.726619
1.021583

0.549246933
0.132291289

40.1908802
15.0583245

139139139Total

2615
996

353
43
26
943

18.705036
10.791367
6.4748201
69.064748

13.57692
2.866667
2.888889
40.75708

2.539568
0.309353
0.18705
6.784173

0.475027173
0.033383365
0.012111174
1.202059935

37.4337222
4.55991516
2.75715801
100

Discussion
The results obtained from this study represent an overall infection of 69.06 percent for
gastrointestinal helminth recovered from domestic rats in Pipar City Tehsil. The rodents generally
have a high infection of gastrointestinal parasites due to their euryphagic food habitats (Okorafor etal. 2012). So, the recovery of various helminths from domestic rats is not an unusual finding. Akhtar(1955) reported that the overall helminth infection in Rattus rufescens in Pakistan was 64 percent, thehighest incidence of infection being by Aspiculuris (60 percent) and lowest by Syphacia (2 percent)and Rictularia had 6 percent incidence. Parihar and Nama (1977) recorded 63.2 overall infection
percentage and the percentage of incidence of A. pakistanica was 20.4. R. ratti was 12.0 percent andS. muris was 5.6 percent. Parihar & Nama (1980) recorded overall helminth infection as 63.5 percent
in Jodhpur city. Singla et al. (2008) reported the highest prevalence of helminthic infection in R. rattus(40.05 percent) from Punjab, India. In present findings overall infection percentage is 69.06 and theincidence percentage of A. pakistanica is 18.70, R. ratti is 10.79 and S. muris is 6.47. Presently, noT. taeniformis or Acanthocephala had been recovered from domestic rats, this study result is not inagreement with Nama and Parihar (1976), had reported these helminths in R. rattus. The present
finding does not consent the results of Malasawmtlungi and Tondon (2009), had reported M.
musculus free from cestode. The present results had slightly higher overall incidence percentage
than the results of Parihar and Nama (1977), whom work was carried out in Jodhpur city. The authors
think that high infection of rats may be due to poor hygiene, habitat of rats and effortless availabilityof intermediate host for infecting domestic rats in rural areas of Pipar City Tehsil. One of therecovered helminth H. diminuta in this study was of zoonotic importance. H. diminuta has alreadybeen reported in humans in Iran by Chadirian and Arfaa (1972) and also been reported in children byMowalvi et al. (2008). Domestic rats can spread zoonotic helminth’s egg through faeces in food
stuffs. So, the rural public health importance is to be investigated and should aware about thesecontagious helminths. Present results show the infection of helminths in domestic rats iscomparatively higher in rural areas than urban areas. This study will be useful to identify the helminth
infections of domestic rats in rural areas of Pipar City Tehsil and to know diseases caused byzoonotic helminths which are transmitted by domestic rats.
Acknowledgement
The authors are thankful to Dr. G. Tripathi, Professor and Head, Department of Zoology, Jai Narain
Vyas University Jodhpur for providing necessary laboratory facilities. This research was carried out
with the financial support provided by the University Grants Commission (UGC) which the one of us
author (Harshvardhan Singh) gratefully acknowledges. Special thanks to SDO Pipar City forproviding information about demography and geography of Pipar City Tehsil. We are also thankful tolocal peoples for capturing and giving us the hosts used in our study.
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