Prevalence and impact of gastrointestinal helminths on body weight gain in backyard chickens in subtropical and humid zone of Jammu, India

Abstract

Necropsy of gastrointestinal tract of 125 freerange chickens from a subtropical and humid zone of northwestern India revealed four nematode spp. (Ascaridia galli, Heterakis gallinarum, Capillaria spp. and Cheilospirura hamulosa) and four cestode spp. (Raillietina cesticillus, Raillietina echinobothrida, Raillietina tetragona and Amoebotaenia cuneata) The overall prevalence of the helminth parasites was 72.0%. Amongst various helminth species encountered in the region, A. galli emerged out as the most prevalent, followed by H. gallinarum, R. cesticillus and R. echinobothrida. The impact of helminthic infections on body weight gain in growing chickens was investigated. One hundred growing chickens, aged 40 days were randomly assigned to two groups (treated and untreated controls) of 50 birds each. The birds in treated group were given fenbendazole at 7.5 mg per kg body weight in drinking water, while the birds in other group served as untreated controls. At the end of the 90 days of the field trial, the mean body weight gain of untreated controls was 1232.2 ± 7.28 g (13.7 g/day) compared with 1617.6 ± 5.43 g (18.0 g/day) in the treated group. It was associated with a significantly (P \ 0.05) higher mean worm burden (32.92 ± 6.12) in untreated controls than the treated group (2.46 ± 1.14). The prevalences of helminthic species and their impact on body weight gain in growing backyard chickens have been discussed.

Prevalence of gastro-intestinal parasites of backyard chickens (Gallus domesticus) in and around Shimoga

“…Similarly Nadakal et al (1973) and Puttalakshmamma et al (2008) reported the highest prevalence of cestodes followed by nematodes and trematodes in desi birds. In contrast to the present study, Katoch et al (2012) and Baboolal et al (2012) observed the higher prevalence of nematodes followed by cestode parasites in backyard chickens of Jammu and broiler chickens of Trinidad region respectively. This could be due to the scavenging habits of backyard chickens, usually seek their food in the superficial layers of the soil, drains etc.…”

“…This is in accordance with the Katoch et al 2012;Saad et al (1989) and Puttalakshmamma et al (2008), who reported 72.0, 77.3 and 71 % helminthic infections in local chickens, respectively. The higher prevalence of helminthic infections in local chickens was reported from other countries includes Morocco, 89.9 % (Hassouni and Belghyti 2006);Nigeria, 87.7 % (Yorio et al 2008) and Iran, 96 % (Eslami et al 2009).…”

“…Among nematode parasites, the highest prevalence of A. galli was observed followed by H. gallinarum. This is in comparison with observations of Katoch et al (2012); Puttalakshmamma et al (2008);Baboolal et al (2012).…”

“…3). Similar observation was made by Puttalakshmamma et al (2008) in desi birds of Bangalore region but Katoch et al (2012) reported higher prevalence of R. cesticellus followed by R. echinobothrida and R. tetragona (Fig. 4) in backyard chickens of Jammu.…”

“…A. galli, R. tetragona and R. echinobothrida was observed in 2 (11.1 %) backyard chickens. However Raote et al (1991) reported 50.97 % mixed infection in desi birds in Akola whereas; Katoch et al (2012) reported 32 % mixed infection in backyard chickens of Jammu. The lowest incidence of mixed infection in the present study might be due to regional variation and the number of samples included in the study.…”