Bats are the only active flying placental mammals and are traditionally classified into mega- and microbats, which are, respectively, herbivorous and insectivorous in feeding habit. Though deforestation, habitat destruction, natural calamities, illegal hunting, and climate changes are the challenging threats for bats, the role of existing gastrointestinal (GI) parasites have not been evaluated yet in Nepal. Thus, the current study aims to determine the prevalence of GI parasites in bats from the Shaktikhor area at the Chitwan district of Southcentral Nepal. From July 2018 to February 2019, a total of 60 fecal samples of bats (30 from frugivorous bats and 30 from the insectivorous bats) were collected. These samples were preserved at 2.5 potassium dichromate solution. The fecal examination was carried out by the direct wet mount, concentrations, acid-fast staining, and sporulation techniques. Overall results showed the prevalence rate of 80 GI parasites. The parasites detected in the insectivorous bats were Ascarid spp., Capillarid sp., Cryptosporidium sp., Eimeria spp., Entamoeba sp., Giardia sp., Hymenolepis spp., Isospora sp., Oxyurid sp., Strongyle, and Strongyloides sp. In contrast, Eimeria sp., Entamoeba sp., and Hymenolepis sp. were detected in the frugivorous bats. Based on a wide diversity of parasite richness and parasitic concurrency measured by the prevalence rates, we suggest that GI parasitism might be a threatening factor in the insectivorous bats in the current study area.

Pentavalent antimonials have long been the first line of defence against leishmaniasis, but resistance has been reported in different parts of the world. Pentavalent antimony is reduced into trivalent form in the cells and is a potential inducer of HSP70 in L. donovani. Expression profile of HSP70 in antimony susceptible and resistant L. donovani isolates were characterized by Southern blot, Northern blot and western blot analysis. HSP70 gene copy number, gene expression and HSP70 protein expression was found uniform in both antimony sensitive and resistant clinical isolates. In laboratory condition, Leishmania cells respond to antimonial drug stress by three fold over expression of the HSP70 protein. The observed results indicated that HSP70 play important role in stress tolerance against antimonial drug without differential expression in antimony sensitive and resistance clinical isolates of L. donovani.Nepal Journal of Biotechnology. Dec. 2015 Vol. 3, No. 1: 22-28

The present study was carried out to determine the prevalence of Enterobius vermicularis in children of Barbhanjyang Village Development Committee, Tanahun, District, Nepal. A total of 110 Scotch tape (Cellophane tape) samples of children aged between 1-12 years were collected and microscopically examined. Altogether 14(12.72%) enterobias prevalence cases were reported in children including sixteen percent male and nine percent female cases. High prevalence of pinworm infection was the age group of 5-8 years (5.45%). The infection rate was significantly associated with ethnic groups (?2 =11.824, df=2, P=0.003) since the prevalence rate was highest in Dalit children (64.28%) compared to others. Itching behaviour of children around the perianal regions was directly associated with the prevalence rate of the pinworm (P=0.0325). Nail biting habit of children was also found to be statistically significant (P=0.024).Journal of Institute of Science and Technology, 2015, 20(2): 18-21

Rhabdias spp. are parasitic nematodes of amphibians and reptiles. They are distributed across wide range globally. An unidentified species of the genus Rhabdias was reported first time from the host Indian marbled toad Bufo stomaticus from Kirtipur, Kathmandu, Nepal. Journal of Institute of Science and Technology, 2015, 20(2): 153-155