THE STUDY OF GASTRO-INTESTINAL HELMINTHES IN NATIVE CHICKEN AND THE EFFICACY OF MEBENDAZOLE AGAINST THE HELMINTH PARASITES

Abstract

During 1996-1999, two thousand gastrointestinal tracts from native chicken sold in the avian market, Klongtoey, Prakanong, Bangkok were randomly examined for adult helminthes. The worms were identified and classified into 3 groups, according to their taxonomy. Intestinal flukes comprised of Echinostoma (1.0%), Prosthogonimus (0.1%) and Notocotylus (0.1%). Tapeworms were Amoebotaenia (0.5%), Cotugnia
(2.1%), Diorchis (0.1%) Hymenolepis (0.9%) and Raillietina (14.5%). The last category was nematodes, which were in 5 genera : Ascaridia (7.2%), Capillaria (1.0%), Gongylonema (4.1%), Heterakis (9.4%), Strongyloides (0.4%) and Tetrameres (1.1%). Concurrent infections with 2 to 7 species of parasites were commonly found.
Later in 2001, the presence of helminth infections in 336 live native chicken taken from Klongtoey was examined using, direct, fecal smears to look for the eggs. The results showed that 23.5% of the chicken were infected with one or more parasites including Ascaridia/Heterakis, Capillaria, Strongyloides, spirurids and tapeworms. Forty-five infected chicken were selected to perform an experiment on the anthelmintic efficacy of
mebendazole. They were divided into 2 groups, 23 birds in the control, untreated group and another 22 in the treated group. All treated chicken were given mebendazole tablets at a dose rate of 50 mg/kg body weight/day, orally, for 6 consecutive days. The efficacy of the drug on certain parasites such as Ascaridia/Heterakis, Capillaria, spirurids and tapeworms was evaluated by means of a standard anthelminthic test. The results
showed that mebendazole was highly effective against Ascaridia/Heterakis (100%) and Capillaria (78.6%), significantly effective against tapeworms (62.5%) but less effective against spirurids (35.7%).