Chewing lice parasitic on migratory aquatic birds in Al- Delmaj marsh/ Iraq

This study was conducted to detect the chewing lice infested migratory aquatic birds in Al-Dalmaj marsh during the period from October 2017 to March 2018, for this aim 154 birds specimens belonging to 11 bird species were examined for the chewing lice infestation. Results of the current study showed recorded nine species of ectoparasites were: Menacanthus stramineus (37.01%), Menacanthus corntus (18.18%) Menacanthus eurysternus (11.04%), Menopon gallinae (18.18%), Trinoton querquedulae (5.84%) Columbicola columbae (8.44%) Aaticola crasssicorins (3.90%), Fulicoffula gallinule (3.25%) and Saemundssonia lari (2.69%), two species of them recorded for the first time in Iraq were: M. eurysternus and T. querquedulae. No significant differences between males and females birds in infested with ectoparasites, while the infestation percentage of ectoparasites significantly decreased with weight increase at level (P ≤ 0.05). The double infestation was the highest with a significant difference followed by single infestation then the triple infestation.