Preliminary coproscopic examination of ornamental birds in Alexandria Province, Egypt

Abstract

Recently, the attention for ornamental birds has increased significantly. This in turn has been reflected in the growth of their trade, and has become a good source of cash income for owners and traders on a small scale. However, there was no attention for studying the parasites that infecting these categories of birds. The current study aims to study the parasites infecting the ornamental birds particularly, the gastrointestinal parasites that infecting these birds. Since 100 fresh fecal samples of 10 species of birds were collected during period from April to September 2016 from pet-shops at Alexandria Province, Egypt. The current study revealed that, the overall incidence of gastrointestinal parasites was 31% and the infestation was concentrated only in 8 species where cockatiel spp recorded the highest incidence (64.7%) followed by Hamam hazaz (50%) then Fisher rose (44.44%), Zebra spp (40 %), Australly (35 %) finally, 20 % was for Gawa spp. Whereas Redram pet, Canary and Badgy recorded no infestation rate at all. The infestation was restricted in three groups of endoparasites (Protozoa are represented in Eimeria, Trematodes are represented in Echinostoma and Nematodes are represented in Ascaridia and Contracaecum spp).