REVALENCE AND MORPHOLOGICAL STUDIES OF GASTROINTESTINAL HELMINTHS OF BACKYARD CHICKEN IN BANGLADESH

Abstract

Poultry is a promising sector in Bangladesh which is expanding day by day. It is also the most appropriate income generating sector for rural women as well as landless and marginal farmers. But the indigenous chickens are affected by various parasites. Therefore, the present study was aimed to study the prevalence and morphological identification of gastrointestinal helminths of backyard chicken in Dhaka, Bandarban, Mymensingh and Pabna. A total of 63 intestines were examined for helminth parasites from September 2017 to November 2017. This experiment was performed at the Microbiology and Parasitology Laboratory under the Department of Microbiology and Parasitology, Sher-e- Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka-1207. The collected helminths were identified according to the keys and description given by Soulsby (1982) and Yamaguti (1958). A high rate of helminth infection (100%) was observed in backyard chicken in Bangladesh. One cestode, Raillietina tetragona (73.01%); two nematodes, Ascaridia galli (47.61%) and Heterakis gallinarum (38.09%); and two trematodes, Catatropis verrucosa (23.80%) and Echinostoma revolutum (7.93%) were encountered during the study. Ascaridia galli was mostly found in small intestine whereas Heterakis gallinarum was found in the caecum. Echinostoma revolutum and Raillietina tetragona were collected from both small and large intestines. Catatropis verrucosa were recovered only from caecum. Out of 63 samples, 25.39% were infected with single infection while the rest 74.61% were mixed infections. This work strongly suggests that helminthosis is a very serious problem in backyard chicken and therefore, appropriate control strategies are needed to design for better production.