Prevalence of Ectoparasites Infestation Among Some Breeds of Chickens in Alqahira, AkkoLG.A, Gombe State

Abstract

Ectoparasitism has been identified as one of the major factors that threaten scavenging village chicken production systems in developing countries. The study examined the prevalence of ectoparasite infestation among chickens in Alqahira quarters in Akko local government, Gombe State. Two hundred chickens, which comprise three species namely: Naked neck, Vendaand Ovambo of both sexes and various ages were sampled. Household with moderate to high numbers of chicken population and that were willing to voluntarily cooperate with the sampling procedures were randomly selected and included in the study, Sampling was carried out for a periodof 2months on weekly basis. Ectoparasites were collected from the body/skin of each bird and not from the ground in order to minimize accidental collections of  other arthropods that donot actually parasitize chickens. Examination for ectoparasitic infestations was carried out earlyinthemorning  and in the evening. The result of ecto parasite infestation based on experimental siteshowed that Wurro bogga community has the  highest number of chicken examined 80 (40%) andalso the highest infestation 55 (68.75%). The result also showed that out of 200  chickens examined, 108 representing 54.0% were found to be infested with ectoparasite with female constituting the highest infestation 70  (64.81%) and males 38 (35.19%). The result further revealed that lice were found to be more abundant 48 (44.44%) followed by mites 28  (25.93%), fleas 17 (15.74%) and the least parasite was ticks 15 (13.89%) respectively. The result of the distribution of the ecto parasite based  on breed revealed that venda chickens were found to be more infested 40 (37.04%) than ovambo 39 (36.11%) and naked neck 29  (26.85%), respectively. Application of integrated prevention and control measures like awareness creation to the community on the overall  effect of ecto parasites on the productivity of chickens and preventionmethods and further studies to cover investigation of  endoparasites  of chickens in the study area should be explored.