Incidence of chewing lice (Phthiraptera: Insecta) on common pea fowls (Aves: Galliformes) from district Hyderabad, Sindh, Pakistan

The chewing  lice (Insecta: Phthiraptera)  are  dorsoventrally flattened  and  wingless  insects. The lice have strong  mandibles  for  biting  tissue  debris  and  body  feathers  of  their  hosts.  They  have  high  capability  to develop host specificity and cause acute to chronic effects on fitness of their hosts. They are responsible for numerous illnesses and also play a role as vector of some bacteria and helminthic worms. Presently, one type of large sized galliform bird, Common pea fowl Pavocristatus was selected for collection, identification, population density and rate of infestation of the parasitic insects, chewing lice from urban and rural areas of district Hyderabad Sindh, Pakistan. 20 Common pea fowl Pavocristatus were collected for chewing lice. The study was conducted from December 2016 to October 2017. Common pea fowls were kept on white paper sheet for about 30 minutes and sprayed through coopex powder (Permathrin) in their wings. The infested birds were tagged with identity rings to check their lice population after interval of 2  to  3  weeks.  The  collected  lice  were  preserved  in  75%  ethanol.  The  permanent  microscopic  slides  were prepared  with canada balsam through standard method of preservation. Presently  total  150 chewing lice specimens were recovered which belongs to 04 genera of 02 families. These species and their prevalence are 33.33% for Colpocephalum tausi (Nitzsch, 1818) 24.01% for Menacanthus stramineus (Nitzsh, 1818), and  14.01%  for  Menacanthus  pallidulus (Neumann,  1912)  belongs to  family  Menoponidae  18.01% Goniodes  dissimilis,  Denny,  1842  and  10.67%  for  Lipeurus  tropicalis,  Peters,  1931  belongs  to  family Philopteridae. All these five species were reported first time as new host and new locality record from the study area. The result of present study revealed that one of a cause of reduced production of eggs, meat and feathers in poultry birds is the presence of  chewing lice on their body which causes weakness, sickness, lethargicness and fatalness in game birds.  All lice species were studied and described comprehensively.