Post therapeutic cardiopulmonary evaluation of cattle with chronic theileriosis

Bovine theileriosis is one of the economically important diseases caused by Theileria annulata in Andhra Pradesh, India. Very limited documentation is available on cardiopulmonary signs and its post therapeutic evaluation in cattle with theileriosis. Hence the present study was carried out on eight adult cattle with chronic theileriosis showing signs of respiratory distress and cardiovascular abnormalities. Confirmation of theileriosis was done by demonstration of organisms in the stained blood smears; the infected cattle were injected with buparvaquone along with symptomatic and supportive medications. On evaluation of cardiopulmonary function, tachypnea, dyspnea, tachycardia and muffled heart sounds were observed. Haemato-biochemical evaluation revealed the presence of anaemia, low serum albumin levels, elevated serum creatine kinase myocardial band isoenzyme levels. Electrocardiography abnormalities were observed on the day of presentation. Post therapeutic assessment revealed improvement in the clinical signs, but without reduction in the serum creatine kinase myocardial band isoenzyme levels after therapy which was indicative of myocardial inflammation. Electrocardiography divulged persistence of ventricular premature complex, atrial fibrillation even after therapy. There were no changes in the echocardiographic parameters viz. left ventricular internal dimension at end-diastole, left ventricular internal dimension at end-systole, interventricular septum thickness at end-diastole, interventricular septum thickness at end-systole, left ventricular posterior wall thickness at end-diastole, left ventricular posterior wall thickness at end-systole on day zero, 7th and 14th day of therapy. The presence of cardiac abnormalities usually causes reduction in the cardiac function, development of respiratory abnormalities which make the animals reluctant to feed intake and ultimately causes reduction in milk yield. The present research study concludes that the cardiopulmonary signs developed in cattle with theileriosis which might be due to anaemia and changes in the serum albumin levels which aggravated the myocardial tissue hypoxia.