Parasitic Prevalence in Wild and Captive Birds Along an Altitudinal Gradient in Punjab, Pakistan
Parasitic Prevalence in Wild and Captive Birds Along an Altitudinal Gradient in Punjab, Pakistan
Abdul Majeed Saim1, Arshad Javid1, Misbah Sarwar2,
Muhammad Hafeez-ur-Rehman3 and Ali Hussain4*
ABSTRACT
Haemosporidians are intracellular avian parasites and have serious impact on captive and wild birds worldwide. These avian parasites cause serious infections which ultimately cause decline in population of both wild and captive birds even can cause their extinction. Environmental changes especially variation in temperature and altitudinal gradient have great impact on distribution of ectoparasites and endoparasites in both captive and wild birds worldwide. These parasites affect bird population badly and cause massive mortality in captive birds. In the current study, conducted from April 2021 to December 2021, we investigated prevalence of seventeen endoparasites and ectoparasites, in eight captive and wild birds along altitudinal gradient. We collected ectoparasites externally using forceps and endoparasites by blood samples of total 960 sampled birds and examined them under microscope. Total 136 birds found having 37.8% parasitic prevalence. Raillietina echinobothrida, a Cestode parasite, showed maximum 78% prevalence recorded in Turkeys sampled from Khanewal (73%) situated at 128m from sea level, 68% at 39⁰C in July 2021. Histomonas meleagridis, a protozoan parasite, showed minimum 8% in wild pigeon sampled from Rawalpindi situated at 508m above sea level, 6% at 20⁰C in December 2021. Results concluded that raise in temperature also increases the parasitic prevalence but it is decreased with the increase in elevation above sea level. It was concluded that three Haemoparasite species, six nematodes species, one cestode species, three protozoan species and two trematodes species of parasites were observed and identified from fecal and blood samples.
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