The first report of hydatid disease (Echinococcus granulosus) in an Australian water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis)

A three year old female water buffalo was slaughtered for human consumption on a dairy buffalo farm in eastern New South Wales, Australia. Gross examination of the offal revealed four small, superficial hydatid cysts in the liver and two larger superficial cysts in one lung. All organs were sliced and no other cysts were found. Histology and PCR confirmed the cysts to be cysts of Echinococcus granulosus senso stricto. None of the cysts contained protoscoleces. The source ofinfection is equivocal, but it is most likely from E. granulosus eggs passed in the faeces of wild dogs (dingoes and dingo-wild dog hybrids). Wild dogs are resident in the bush that abuts the farm boundary and from time to time wild dogs are seen in the buffalo paddocks on the farm. Sylvatic transmission of E. granulosus occurs commonly in eastern Australia through a predator/prey interaction between wild dogs and macropod marsupials.