Haemoprotozoa Infection of Domestic Birds in Hilly Areas of Bangladesh

Abstract

The blood protozoa of two important domestic birds namely chickens (Gallus domesticus) and pigeon (Columba livia) reared in the hilly areas of Bangladesh were studied. A total of 400 birds (200 chicken and 200 pigeons) were examined of which 149 (37.3%) [95% CI] birds were found infected by one or more haemoprotozoan parasites. Haemoprotozoa belonging to three genera were identified. Pigeon 80 (40%) was recorded more susceptible to haemoprotozoa infection than chicken 69 (34.5%). 118 birds (29.5%) were found to be infected with single infection where as mixed infections were found in 31 birds (7.8%). The prevalence of blood protozoa in female birds (69.5%) was found significantly higher (p ≤ 0.0001) [95% CI] than male birds (5%). Within the study period, the prevalence rate of Haemoprotozoa was 60.6% in summer season, 36.7% in rainy and 23% winter seasons. This study has archived a high prevalence of haemoparasites, henceforth encourage further to determine the effect of contamination on the productivity and profitability of these birds, and evaluation of cost-benefit of various control strategies need to be undertaken.

Emerging Haemosporidian Infections in Village Chickens (<i>Gallus gallus domesticus</i>) in Yobe State, Nigeria

“…Gimba et al [6], Nakayima et al [19] and Nourani et al [24] have all reported these two avian haemosporidians, indicating that they are the most common in village chickens and have a global distribution. The present study also discovered mixed Plasmodium and Haemoproteus infections, which is consistent with previous findings [6,10,16,20,21,25].…”

“…Plasmodium species (9.4%) was the most common haemosporidian in village hens, confirming the findings of other researchers who found Plasmodium species to be the most common haemosporidian infection in scavenging birds [4,6,8,19,21,32,37]. However, the Plasmodium prevalence rate in this study is lower than 11.4% in Maiduguri [11], 12.0% in Sokoto [40], 33.3% in Owerri [27], and 32.0% in Ibadan [33] of Borno, Sokoto, Imo, and Oyo States respective in Nigeria.…”

“…The prevalence of a single Haemoproteus infection was found to be 2.6% in this Study. However, Sabuni et al [31], Gimba et al [6], and Nath and Bhuiyan [21] from Ethiopia, Selangor, and Bangladesh, respectively, reported lower prevalence rates of 0.9%, 0.8%, and 2.5%. The prevalence of Haemoproteus in village chickens reported in this present study is lower than 23.3% reported in Bangladesh [12], 13.2% in Iraq [10] and 50.9% in Nigeria [14].…”

Prevalence of Avian Haemosporidian Parasites in Village Chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus) from Kwami, Gombe State, Nigeria

“…This finding buttresses the finding of Naqvi et al (2017) who also reported mixed Plasmodium and Haemoproteus species infection in scavenging chickens. However, the finding of the present study is lower than 47.4% reported by Hasson (2015), but higher than 0.5% reported by Nath and Bhuiyan (2017). The difference in the reported prevalence rates of mixed Plasmodium and Haemoproteus species infections in chickens may partly be attributed to variation in geographic distribution of arthropod vectors.…”

Prevalence of malaria parasites in indigenous chickens and ducks in selected districts of Bangladesh

“…According to Nath et al (2014), prevalence of Leucocytozoon was 12% in chickens in Bangladesh. In hilly areas of Bangladesh, prevalence of haemoprotozoa in domestic bird was 60.6% in summer season, 36.7% in rainy and 23% in winter seasons (Nath and Bhuiyan, 2017). There is limited information on the epidemiology of these important haemoprotozoan parasites in Bangladesh.…”