Seasonal variations of EPG levels in gastro-intestinal parasitic infection in a southeast asian controlled locale: a statistical analysis

Amit K. Chattopadhyay, Subhayu Bandyopadhyay

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    We present a data based statistical study on the effects of seasonal variations in the growth rates of the gastro-intestinal (GI) parasitic infection in livestock. The alluded growth rate is estimated through the variation in the number of eggs per gram (EPG) of faeces in animals. In accordance with earlier studies, our analysis too shows that rainfall is the dominant variable in determining EPG infection rates compared to other macro-parameters like temperature and humidity. Our statistical analysis clearly indicates an oscillatory dependence of EPG levels on rainfall fluctuations. Monsoon recorded the highest infection with a comparative increase of at least 2.5 times compared to the next most infected period (summer). A least square fit of the EPG versus rainfall data indicates an approach towards a super diffusive (i. e. root mean square displacement growing faster than the square root of the elapsed time as obtained for simple diffusion) infection growth pattern regime for low rainfall regimes (technically defined as zeroth level dependence) that gets remarkably augmented for large rainfall zones. Our analysis further indicates that for low fluctuations in temperature (true on the bulk data), EPG level saturates beyond a critical value of the rainfall, a threshold that is expected to indicate the onset of the nonlinear regime. The probability density functions (PDFs) of the EPG data show oscillatory behavior in the large rainfall regime (greater than 500 mm), the frequency of oscillation, once again, being determined by the ambient wetness (rainfall, and humidity). Data recorded over three pilot projects spanning three measures of rainfall and humidity bear testimony to the universality of this statistical argument. © 2013 Chattopadhyay and Bandyopadhyay.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)1-9
    Number of pages9
    JournalSpringerPlus
    Volume2
    Issue number1
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 6 May 2013

    Bibliographical note

    © 2013 Chattopadhyay and Bandyopadhyay; licensee Springer.
    This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

    Keywords

    • anthelmintic
    • coccidia
    • EPG
    • histogram
    • least square fit
    • probability densityfunction (PDF)
    • Strongyle

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