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

Abstract

Avian haematozoans are important pathogens of birds causing asymptomatic to fatal infections. The present study was undertaken to investigate the prevalence and associated risk factors of malaria parasite infections in domestic chickens and ducks in three localities namely Mymensingh, Tangail and Netrokona districts in Bangladesh. In total, 474 blood smears (266 chickens and 208 ducks) were screened for haemoprotozoan infection during the period from March, 2016 to February, 2017. Blood samples were collected from wing vein by needle puncture. The parasites were identified from Giemsa stained thin blood smears based on morphological features using standard keys. Malaria protozoa was found in 60 birds (12.7%), of which 35 were chickens (13.2%) and 25 were ducks (12.0%). Two species of blood protozoa were identified namely Leucocytozoon spp. (10.5%) and Plasmodium spp. (2.1%). The prevalence of haemoprotozoa was found high among the adults (13.9%) while it was 11.2% among young birds. Female (15.2%) was 1.46 times more susceptible than male (10.9%).The prevalence rate was highest in Netrokona (18.9%) followed by Tangail (12.2%) and Mymensingh (8.7%). In this study, the prevalence rate was highest in rainy season (18.3%), moderate in summer (10%) and less in winter season (9.3%). Present study revealed that these haemorpotozoa are capable of infecting indigenous domestic chicken and duck. Further studies should focus on characterization of the malaria parasites of indigenous chickens and ducks in Bangladesh.

Natural Infections of Avian Haemosporidian Parasites among Free-Range Chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus) in Yamaltu Deba, Gombe State, Nigeria

“…In addition, several similar studies have reported Plasmodium species in some parts of the world as the most frequently found avian haemosporidian parasite in free-range chickens in their respective study areas [9,33,42]. The findings of the present study are inconsistent with Gimba et al [21], Opara et al [32] and Hassan et al…”

“…[4] and Ogbaje et al [2], who also reported a higher prevalence of haemosporidian parasites in males compared to female free-range chickens in Owerri, Maiduguri, Nassarawa and Markudi, respectively, in Nigeria. The finding of this study also confirmed previous reports by Sabuni et al [34] in Kenya, Hasan et al [9] in Bangladesh, Etisa et al [33] in Ethiopia, which also reported a high prevalence of haemosporidian parasites in free-range chicken cocks in their respective studies compared to the hens. In contrast, Naqvi et al [44] in Pakistan and Nath and Bhuiyan [25] in Bangladesh indicated that the hens have higher prevalence rates of infection with avian haemosporidian parasites compared to the cocks in scavenging chickens.…”

“…The adverse effects of parasitic diseases and the economic loss they inflict have been reported on some avian host. It has been reported that avian which cause high mortality, reproductive failure, growth retardation, reduced productivity [9]. Avian malaria has been documented to be caused by haemoparasites such as Plasmodium, Haemoproteus and Leucocytozoon which were reported as the most frequently and worldwide distributed genera of blood parasites [10][11].…”

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

“…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.…”

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“…Previous reports have indicated more likelihood of female domesticated poultry species being more exposed to arthropods during incubation compared to the males in Nigeria [36][37][38] and in Ethiopia [39]. This finding contradicts the sex-specific prevalence of avian haemoparasites reported in chickens where prevalence is reported significantly higher in cocks than in hens [33,34,40]. The reasons were attributed to the abundance of predilection sites and larger surface areas (larger comb and wattles in male compared to female)…”