Evaluating the hemato-biochemical indices in relation to the different etiologies of chronic diarrhea in dairy cattle and buffalo

Various studies show that chronic diarrhea is a severe pathological condition that poses great challenge to veterinarians as well as cattle owners. Keeping in view the recent surge in the cases of chronic diarrhea due to multiple factors, a study was undertaken to understand the hemato-biochemical features vis-à-vis etiology of chronic diarrhea in dairy cattle and buffalo. The study was carried on adult dairy animals ( n = 102) with the complaint of diarrhea from more than 1-month duration. The results reveal that 60% of dairy cattle and buffaloes had diarrhea from 1 to 3 months, 20% cases had diarrhea from 4 to 12 months, while as 10% of cases had history of diarrhea from more than 12 months. The infection prevalence also varied significantly ( P < 0.05) among study animals with highest infection of balantidiasis (37.6% of animals) and least infection of clinical Johne’s (3.9% of animals). It was further observed that diarrhea was idiopathic in nature in 24.5% cases. The hematological parameters show significant variation as mean hemoglobin ( P < 0.05) concentration was below 8gm/dl in salmonellosis-, amphistomiasis-, and chronic peritonitis–infected animals. The changes in PCV in different etiological groups of diarrheic animals were not significant. In the present study, anemia in majority of the cases was regenerative, which revealed neutrophilia with morphological changes suggestive of regenerative to degenerative left shift. The multivariate analysis depicts significant variation in different hematobiochemical changes in relation to chronic diarrhea, which is further authenticated by the principal component analysis. Furthermore, total protein levels were lower in animals diagnosed with clinical Johne’s disease and amphistomiasis and hyperphosphatemia were observed in animals affected by clinical Johne’s disease. Some of the parameters like creatinine, potassium, and chloride did not vary significantly between etiological groups and reference values.