Ndaleh Wozerou Nghonjuyi*, Helen Kuokuo Kimbi, Christian Keambou Tiambo
*Corresponding author: ndawoz2008@yahoo.com
ARTICLE CITATION:
Nghonjuyi NW, Kimbi HK, Tiambo CK (2014). Study of gastro–intestinal parasites of scavenging chickens in fako division, southwest Cameroon. J. Adv. Parasitol. 1 (3): 30 – 34.
Received: 2014–04–22, Revised: 2014–05–14, Accepted: 2014–05–14
The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at
(http://dx.doi.org/10.14737/journal.jap/1.2.30.34)
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
This research was an active surveillance of gastrointestinal parasites that parasitize rural birds in Fako Division, South West Cameroon. Eight hundred and eighty eight sterile samples of the faeces of 889 rural birds were collected randomly from 4 localities in Fako Division. These were immediately transported to the laboratory for analysis by the saturated salt/sugar solution floatation method. Viewing with x10 objective of the microscope it was discovered that out of the 889 samples examined for gastrointestinal parasites, 500 were infected with the following prevalence values: Eimeria species (301, 33.9%), Ascaridia galli (127, 14.3%), Heterakis gallinarium (87, 9.8%), Strongyloides species (76, 8.6%), Capillaria species (51, 5.7%) and Trichuris (51, 5.74%). The highest prevalence from the four locations was registered in Muyuka (220, 76.61%), followed by Tole (56, 61.54%) and the least was registered in Muea (282, 44.48%). It was concluded that there is a considerable level of coccidian and Ascaridia galli in Fako in rural birds, which could lead to high losses. We advice for workshops with these local farmers on the importance of keeping local birds, feeding, housing and how to improve on management of these fowls for optimum yield.
Poultry industry occupies an important position in the provision of animal protein to man and generally plays a vital role in the national economy as a revenue provider. In most African countries, backyard poultry accounts for more than 60% of the total national poultry flocks accorded an asset value of more than 5.75 billion US$ (Sonaiya, 1998). It is estimated that these provide 12 kg of poultry needs per inhabitant per year whereas cattle provides 5.3 kg (Mephosa and Masika, 2010). Therefore, poultry meat is more available to the people than beef. Unfortunately, village chicken production is constrained by many extrinsic factors among which malnutrition, poor management, lack of supplement feed and the absence of biosecurity are outstanding. In backyard production system, the chickens are exposed to a higher risk of infection by a wide variety of parasites which range from lice, mites, fleas, ticks, and helminths to gnats and coccidia (Nnadi, 2009).
Parasitism causes a reduction in growth, egg production, emaciation and anaemia as well as mortality (Kaufman et al., 2007). Moreover, it has been reported that parasitic infections or their concurrent infections result in immunosuppression, especially in response to vaccines against some poultry diseases (Anne, 2006). Studies in some countries have shown that the prevalence of parasitic infestations in village chicken flocks is very high ranging from 50 to close to 100% (Irungu et al., 2004, Mungube et al., 2008, Nnadi and George, 2010), and in most cases individual birds habour more than one parasite type (Thrusfield, 2005).
Although helminthic infections do not cause significant morbidity and mortality they however, cause substantial effects such as malabsorption, diarrhoea, anaemia and other states of poor health, particularly in young birds (Ehrenberg and Ault, 2005 and Hotez et al., 2007). On the other hand, coccidiosis causes considerable economic loss in the poultry industry such as reduced growth rate, impaired feed conversion leading to poor performance and mortality especially in broiler chickens. Chickens are susceptible to at least 9 species of coccidia. The most common species are Eimeria tenella, which causes caecal coccidiosis, while E. acervulina and E. maxima cause chronic intestinal coccidiosis.
There is a paucity of information regarding the prevalence of these endoparasites in local chickens in Fako Division. Such knowledge is essential in understanding the epidemiology of the diseases as well as the design of their appropriate control measures. This work was therefore aimed at providing base–line information on the prevalence and distribution of major gastrointestinal parasites of scavenging chickens reared under traditional systems in selected localities of Fako Division, Southwest Cameroon.