A Study of the Prevalence and Abundance of Chewing Lice (Phthiraptera) in Selected Poultry Farms in Benin City, Edo State

Abstract

An investigation on the prevalence of chewing lice in three selected poultries located in Ekosodin, EDPA and Adolor in Benin metropolis in Edo state was conducted fortnightly from March to April, 2016 to determine the chewing lice species richness, lice abundance, composition, sex ratio and percent prevalence. Menocanthus stramineus, Menopon gallinae and Lipeurus caponis were the only chewing lice species recorded. The largest population of chewing lice species occurred in Adolor and least in EDPA. The most prevalent species across the three localities was M. stramineus with a mean prevalence of (56%), followed by M. gallinae (34%) and L. caponis (10%). Statistical analysis showed that the abundance of M. stramineus significantly differed among locations; Ekosodin, Adolor and EDPA (F2,23 =42.18; P <.001) and between sexes with females being more abundant. (F1,23 =9.44; P =0.007) while M. gallinae differed significantly among the different locations but did not differ in sexes unlike L. caponis that did not differ significantly both in location (F2,23 =0.66; P =0.528) and between sex (F1,23 =0.05; P =0.824) with females being more abundant in all. Therefore, further studies to access the impact of these lice species on the health and production performance including cost effectiveness of control strategies and thorough education of poultry managers are strongly recommended.