INVESTIGATION OF DIFFERENT PARASITES OF FARMED PIGEONS AT DINAJPUR SADAR UPAZILA

Abstract

A cross sectional study was conducted to investigate the different parasites in farmed pigeon at sadar upazila of Dinajpur, Bangladesh during January to June, 2017. A total of 122 pigeons (39 young and 83 adult in which 45 male and 77 female) from different farms were examined by faecal, oral and blood sample examination and postmortem examination for histopathological study. The investigation expressed that the highest overall prevalence was ectoparasites 107 (87.70%) followed by helminthes 96 (78.69%) and protozoa 71(58.20%). In this study, the frequency of Echinostoma sp., Raillietina sp., Ascaridia sp., Capillaria sp., Ornithostrongylus sp., Eimeria sp., Trichomonas sp., Haemoproteus sp., Columbicola columbae, Menopon sp. and Lipeurus sp. were found to be 24(19.67%), 46(37.67%), 51(41.80%), 38(31.15%), 15(12.30%), 45(36.89%), 47(38.52%), 39(31.97%), 96(78.67%), 55(45.08%) and 75(61.48%) respectively. The age and sex related prevalence of helminth revealed that adults 68(81.93%) were more susceptible than young 28(71.79%) and females 62(80.52%) were more prevalent than male 34(75.56%) but these were statistically insignificant (P>0.05). Further, youngs 25(64.10%) were more prone to protozoa than adults 46(55.42%) and the higher prevalence of protozoa was found in female 50(64.94%) in compare to male 21(46.67%) which were not statistically significant (P>0.05). Association of age and sex with ectoparasites indicated that the prevalence of ectoparasites was significantly (P<0.001) higher in adult 80(96.39%) than young 27(69.23%) and also significantly (P<0.05) higher in female 50(64.94%) than male 21(46.67%) pigeons. The mean intensity of Echinostoma sp., Raillietina sp., Ascaridia sp., Capillaria sp., Ornithostrongylus sp., Eimeria sp., Trichomonas sp., Haemoproteus sp., Columbicola columbae, Menopon sp. and Lipeurus sp. was 2.50±0.30, 4.30±0.35, 3.80±0.29, 2.53±0.23, 1.92±0.24, 4.38±0.38, 4.53±0.42, 7.82±0.61, 17.32±0.82, 14.47±1.13 and 11.91±0.85 respectively. Histopathologically found that degeneration, distraction and desquamation of papillae, villi and epithelium of intestine. The results indicate that pigeons of this area are very much susceptible to different endo and ectoparasites which cause great economic loss of the farmer.