Prevalence of gastrointestinal helminths in chickens in Afyonkarahisar district, Turkey

Summary This study was carried out in Afyonkarahisar region of Western Turkey, where chickens and eggs are produced intensively, for determining the prevalence of the gastro-intestinal helminths in chicken. This research was conducted on 200 broilers, collected from 10 modern farms, 200 layer hens, from different 10 modern farms and on 100 free ranging backyard chickens. According to the necropsy findings, none of gastro-intestinal helminths was found in broiler chickens. In total 4 modern layer farms, Choanotaenia infundibulum was detected in 23 (11.5%) chickens out of 200. A total of 58 (58%) free-range backyard chickens were infected with various helminth species, which were: Heterakis gallinarum 38%, Ascaridia galli 19%, C. obsignata 15%, Capillaria caudinflata 13%, Trichostrongylus tenuis 3%, Subulura differens 2%, Choanotaenia infundibulum 14%, Raillietina echinobothrida 6%, R. cesticillus %3. The predominantly seen helminth species was H. gallinarum (38%) and the rarely seen species was S. differens (2%). In total 9 species were detected, which 6 of them were nematodes and 3 of them were cestodes. In infected chickens, minimum one and maximum 3 helminth species were detected. No trematode species was detected in necropsied and fecal examinated chickens. A total of 81 (16.2%) chickens out of 500 were found infected with various helminth species in necropsy and fecal examination. The helminth infection rates and species numbers in modern farms obtained less than in free-ranging systems.