Gastrointestinal strongyle infections in captive and wild elephants in Sri Lanka

We assessed gastrointestinal strongyle prevalence and abundance in 141 captive Asian elephants under two management regimes and compared them to 50 wild elephants. Gastrointestinal nematode prevalence was found to be 38% in Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage, 90% in privately owned and 100% in wild elephants. Mean number of larvae was 1.9 in Pinnawela, 108 in privately owned and 372 in wild elephants. Elephants being dewormed every 3 months had significantly less parasites than the ones on a 6-monthly regime. Variance in parasite prevalence and load is likely to be primarily related to differences in anthelmintic treatment, and secondarily to husbandry practices. © 2017 The Authors Open Access 22 Materials and methods