Prevalence of ectoparasites in backyard local chickens in three agroecologic zones of East Shoa, Ethiopia

A study was carried out to determine the prevalence of ectoparasites and identify the species of ectoparasites in backyard local chickens in three dif- ferent agro-ecological areas namely highland, midland and lowland. Out of 600 local chickens examined, 549 (91.5%) chickens were found to harbor ectoparasites.There was no significant difference (P > 0.05) observed in the prevalence of ectoparasites among the study sites while significantly higher prevalence (P < 0.05) was observed in male (94.35) than female (88.7%) chicken. Nine different species of ectoparasites were identified during this study: Echdinophaga gallinacea, Amblyomma spp., Argas persicus, Menopon gallinae, Menacanthus straminues, Gonoides gigas, Gonicotes gallinae, Cuclotoigaster hetrographa and Lipeurus caponis. Menacanthus stramineus (65.5%) was the most prevalent ectoparasite identified followed by Echdinophaga gallinacea (51.3%).