Various workers in India (Jagannath et al., 1974; Mir et al., 1993; Saxena et al., 1995) and other countries (Fabiyi,1980; Abeba et al., 1997; Khan et al., 2003) have studied the prevalence of ectoparasites in poultry but no comprehensive studies on the prevalence of ectoparasites in poultry have been carried out in Himachal Pradesh. The present study was conducted to record the prevalence of ectoparasites in different seasons in village and farm birds.

A total of 517 village birds (non descript type) and 396 farm birds (WLH) in and around Palampur were screened for a period of one year (July 2000 – June 2001). The mites found on the feathers of birds as well as those crawling on the walls of poultry houses were picked up with a camel hair brush moistened with water and transferred to a glass vial containing 70% alcohol. The collected lice and mites were further processed as per the standard procedure.

In the present study, 59.76% village birds and 42.42% farm birds were found infested with ectoparasites. In village and in farm birds four species of lice, viz., Menopon gallinae, Menacanthus stramineus, Goniocotes gallinae and Lipeuris caponis and one species of mite Ornithonyssus bursa were record (Table 1) and Table 2). Different workers have reported the prevalence of these ectoparasites from different places (D’Souza and Jagannath, 1982; Bettiah and Gouder, 1969; Singh and Chabbra, 1973). In the village birds, O. bursa was recorded in rainy (5.97%) and summer (3.28%) season whereas in farm birds it was recorded in rainy season (12.5 %) only. The incidence of Menopon gallinae was recorded to be highest in the village (49.5%) and farm birds (32.82%) throughout the year in comparison to other ectoparasites. The lice were observed throughout the year, however, mites were mainly prevalent in the rainy season.

In the village birds, higher incidence (59.76%) of ectoparasites was recorded as compared to farm birds (42.42%). Season-wise analysis of the data revealed the highest incidence of ectoparasites in the rainy season (Table 2). During this season, the overall incidence of ectoparasites was 78.80% in village birds and 65.27% in farm birds. Reasonably high temperature and heaviest rainfall during the rainy months in this region favours the multiplication of ectoparasites and as a result maximum number of birds were found infested with lice and mites in this season followed by summer season. During summer, 56.79% village birds were found harbouring ectoparasites whereas the incidence of ectoparasites in the birds of organised farms was low (39.16 %) in this season also. Lowest incidence of ectoparasites was recorded in winter months in both village (42.10%) and farm birds (20.45%) probably due to low temperature, low humidity and shorter light hours inwinter.

References