Gastrointestinal helminths of intensively managed poultry in Kwara Central, Kwara State, Nigeria: Its diversity, prevalence, intensity, and risk factors

Vet World Vol.12 March-2019 Article-7

Research Article

Veterinary World, 12(3): 389-396

https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2019.389-396

Shola David Ola-Fadunsin¹, Patricia Isioma Uwabujo¹, Idiat Modupe Sanda¹, Isau Aremu Ganiyu¹, Karimat Hussain¹, Musa Rabiu¹, Nusirat Elelu², and Musbau Olayinka Alayande^1,3

1. Department of Veterinary Parasitology and Entomology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Ilorin, P.M.B. 1515 Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria.
2. Department of Veterinary Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Ilorin, P.M.B. 1515 Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria.
3. Department of Veterinary Parasitology and Entomology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, P.M.B. 2346 Sokoto, Sokoto State, Nigeria.

Background and Aim: Helminth infections inflict negatively on the production and well-being of animals including poultry. This study was carried out to determine the prevalence, species diversity, intensity, and risk factors associated with the gastrointestinal helminths of intensively raised poultry in Kwara Central senatorial district of Kwara State.

Materials and Methods: Fecal samples were collected from 502 poultry species from 15 farms. The samples were subjected to floatation and the formalin-ethyl acetate concentration techniques of examination. The intensity of infections was determined using McMaster counting technique.

Results: Seven helminth species were detected with Heterakis gallinarum (10.2%) and Ascaridia galli (6.0%) been the most prevalent, while Capillaria species was the least prevalent (0.8%). Physiological status, bird type, production purpose, farm age (years), presence of other animals in the farm, flock size (birds), farm size (acres), housing type, farm type, frequency of anthelmintic use, distance to waste area (meters), level of biosecurity, and frequency of cleaning the pen were the risk factors significantly (p<0.05) associated with the presence of helminth infections.

Conclusion: This study shows that helminth infections are endemic in the study area, as 66.7% of the sampled farms were infected with one or more helminth species. Findings from this study provide information that will assist in improving the poultry sector in Kwara State, Nigeria in general, for better production and profitability. Keywords: epidemiology, gastrointestinal helminths, Kwara State, Nigeria, poultry.

Keywords: epidemiology, gastrointestinal helminths, Kwara State, Nigeria, poultry.

How to cite this article: Ola-Fadunsin SD, Uwabujo PI, Sanda IM, Ganiyu IA, Hussain K, Rabiu M, Elelu N, Alayande MO (2019) Gastrointestinal helminths of intensively managed poultry in Kwara Central, Kwara State, Nigeria: Its diversity, prevalence, intensity, and risk factors, Veterinary World, 12(3): 389-396.

Received: 18-09-2018 Accepted: 01-02-2019 Published online: 14-03-2019

Corresponding author: Shola David Ola-Fadunsin E-mail: olashodam2@yahoo.com

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2019.389-396

Copyright: Ola-Fadunsin, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.