Infestation of chewing lice (Phthiraptera: Insecta) on turkey fowl (Aves: Galliformes) from District Hyderabad, Sindh, Pakistan

The chewing lice (Phthiraptera: Insecta) dorsoventrally flattened wingless parasitic insects of avian fauna. The lice have strong mandibles for biting tissue debris and body feathers of their hosts, causes parasitism and have high capability to develop host specificity. They have acute to chronic effects on their host’s fitness responsively. Their purpose is numerous illnesses and play significant role as vector of various types of helminths and bacteria. Presently, only one type of galliform bird, Turkey fowl Meleagris gallopavo was selected for examining the abundance, intensity, Population density and rate of infestation of chewing lice of various localities of district Hyderabad Sindh, Pakistan. 08 Turkey fowls Meleagris gallopavo were selected for collection of chewing lice species. The study was directed from November 2015 to September 2016. Turkey fowls were kept on white paper sheet for about 30 minutes and were gently sprayed with coopex powder (Permathrin powder) on their wings. Birds infected were tagged with identity  rings to check their lice infestation after interval of 2 to 3 weeks. The chewing lice species were collected and preserved in 70% ethyl alcohol. Permanent microscopic slides were prepared with the help of Canada balsam following standard method of mounting. In the present study total 132 chewing lice were obtained from infested host which belonging to 04 genera of 02 families. These five  species and their prevalence are 15.90% for Chelopistes meleagridis (Linn., 1758); 23.88% for Goniodes dissimilis Denny, 1842, and 29.54% for Lipeurus tropicalis Peters, 1931 belonging to family Philopteridae 9.70% Menacanthus pallidulus (Neumann, 1912) and 20.45% for Menacanthus stramineus (Nitzsch, 1818) belonging to family Menoponidae. All these five species are being reported for the first time from Turkey of district Hyderabad, Sindh. All chewing lice species were studied and described systematica