Biodiversity of chewing lice and helminthes parasites of domestic fowls Gallus gallus domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) (Aves: Galliformes) from Hyderabad, Sindh, Pakistan

Birds are valuable and precious for many purposes. They are individually representing greatly inhabited life forms and also super indicators of  fitness of various ecosystems. Galliform birds (Aves: Galliformes) cover up a most important part of our poultry industry including domestic fowls, Gallus gallus domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758). These are commercially and inexpensivelyimportant birds and are affected by different ectoparasites and endoparasites especially under traditional and unhygienic conditions of rearingin our country. The present research work was conducted to calculate the diversity of species of chewing lice and helminthes parasites and their rate of prevalence in domestic fowls, Gallus gallus domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758). For this study the domestic fowls Gallus gallus domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) were collected live from different urban and rural areas of Hyderabad, Sindh, Pakistan. The study was carried out from 2017-2019. A total of 95 fowls were observed and then dissected for the collection and examination of parasites. Over all prevalence were recorded 91.57%. The species of chewing lice (Phthiraptera) were recovered from wings, belly and body feathers and helminthes parasites were from small intestine only. The identified chewing lice and their prevalence
were Menacanthus stramineus (Nitzsh, 1818), (16.89%), Menopon gallinae (Linnaeus, 1758),(18.72%), Menacanthus pallidulus (Neumann, 1912), (12.36%). Goniocotes gallinae (de Geer, 1776) (10.64%), and Goniodes dissimilis (Denny, 1842) (11.99%). The identified helminthes parasites and their prevalence were Choanotaenia infundibulum (Bloch, 1779) (11.01%), Raillietina cysticillus (Molin 1858), (9.54%) and Cotugnia dignophora (Pasquale 1890), (8.81%). The results of present study discovered that the less care and attention were required for handling and rearing of domestic fowls in study area.