Acta Veterinaria Brno

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Domestic water buffaloes (Bubalus bubalis) are the backbone of Indian dairy industry, contributing more than 55% of total milk produced by Indian livestock. Non-traumatic cardiac affections in buffaloes are commonly reported but remain underdiagnosed and understudied. This study was carried out on 1,768 buffaloes over a period of 8 months. Of the total, 57 buffaloes were suspected for cardiac diseases. Clinical signs, haemato-biochemical changes, radiography, echocardiography and cardiac biomarkers were estimated and correlated to characterize cardiac affections in buffaloes. Twenty-six buffaloes were confirmed non-traumatic cardiac affected cases and characterized into three categories, namely, idiopathic congestive heart failure (CHF) (16), CHF due to dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) (8), and constrictive pericarditis (2) based on characteristic echocardiographic findings. Haemato-biochemical examination revealed neutrophilic leukocytosis, hypoalbuminaemia, hypoproteinaemia, hypocalcaemia and increased lactate dehydrogenase (LDH). Bovine cTn-I was significantly increased in all cardiac categories compared to healthy control. Streptococcus spp., Staphylococcus spp., E. coli spp. and Corynebacterium spp. were predominant bacterial isolates present in infected pericardial fluid. This is India’s first report of DCM and idiopathic CHF in buffaloes of non-traumatic origin characterized on the basis of echocardiographic indices. Bovine cardiac troponin I (cTn-I) can serve as a sensitive diagnostic biomarker for cardiac affections in buffaloes but lacks specificity in differentiating specific cardiac diseases.

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