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Tapeworm Infection in Chickens: Symptoms and Treatment

Parasitic diseases:

Raillietina cesticillus

Tapeworm Infection in Chickens: Raillietina cesticillus.

Tapeworm infections in chickens are caused by parasites flat, segmented, ribbon-like worms; these are parasitic diseases caused by flat, segmented worms belonging to the Tapeworm family.

The species of tapeworms that affect the domestic hen are:

Davainea proglottina (Davaine, 1860);
Raillietina tetragona (Molin, 1858);
Raillietina cesticillus (Molin, 1858);
Amoebotaenia sphenoides (Railliet, 1892);
Choanotaenia infundibulum (Railliet, 1896)
Hymenolepis carioca (Magalhaes, 1898)

Among these species, the main ones are Raillietina cesticillus and Choanotaenia infundibulum, being the coleóptero Dermestes spp. its intermediate host (Espaine, 1974). A solitary hen is not the same as a solitary parasite in a hen.

The effects on affected hens are similar to those caused by roundworms, but more severe, as they can lead to neurological symptoms, including epileptic-like seizures.

It was always thought that cysticercosis was found only in pigs, and that the tapeworm affected only humans. We now know that they are one and the same.

Few people realize that chickens are also hosts to a tapeworm that significantly impacts both egg and meat production and causes cysticercosis in them.

Afirman la doctora en Veterinaria Luz Adilia Luna, graduada en Cuba y profesora en la Universidad de Ciencias Comerciales en Managua, y el doctor Niels Kyvsgaard, profesor de la Universidad Agraria de Dinamarca.

Taeniasis, or cysticercosis, in chickens is caused by a tapeworm—a flat, ribbon-like parasite that is white, yellowish, or light gray in color.

Their body is divided into scolex (anterior part, provided in suction cups, and sometimes of hooks, worms, tapeworms, or head of the tapeworm),

The scolex measures slightly less than a pinhead.

It has hooks and suction cups that allow it to attach itself to the intestinal wall, from which it absorbs the nutrients that nourish it.

The other part of the body is called the neck, which can be long or short, where have their organs of reproduction.

Cestodo, Scolex

This solitary is male and female at the same time. The third part consists of the proglottids; the proglottids constitute the reproductive structure of these parasites and are classified, according to their stage of development, as immature, mature, and gravid. The immature proglottids have underdeveloped genital organs.

Mature worms have fully developed ovaries and testes capable of producing eggs, and gravid proglottids contain highly infectious eggs (each gravid proglottid can contain up to 60,000 eggs); this is where the eggs are produced.

Once that is done the self-fertilization or fertilization criss-cross pattern, the eggs, the product of the union of sex cells fused in fertilization, go through transformations are very brief, and then converted into a sphere microscopic covered by a layer that confers some level of resistance.

Cysticerci mature dissected:

Egg of the genus Taenia

Cysticerci mature dissected

The region clara is the small larva tapeworm and the darkest region is a vesicle filled with fluid that helps the larvae to remain alive for some time.

The cysticerci mature can be measured from 0.5 to 2.5 cm in diameter.

Tapeworm infection in chickens affects the small intestine. When examining the intestines of a dead chicken, we find not only tapeworms but also other parasites such as planaria or raillietina, which make the chickens sick, causing poor digestion and a decrease in egg production.

Once outside the host, tapeworm segments do not infect birds; they must be ingested by an intermediate host. The type of intermediate host—whether an insect, earthworm, snail, or slug—depends on the species of tapeworm in question.

The segments of the tapeworm are infectious immediately to the intermediate host. The level at which the larvae are evolving to an infectious state for the birds depends on the temperature.

In warm weather, the development takes two weeks, and then the bird gets the infection by capturing and ingesting the intermediate host.

Symptoms:

Non-specific are: weakness, decay and poor growth. There may be diarrhoea.

The lesion usually presents is enteritis catarrhal.

Tapeworms are usually easy to spot in the intestine. At least one of the species, la raillietina, causes the formation of nodules (lumps are small and white) in the intestinal wall, similar to that which causes tuberculosis. Hence, come the inflammation of the small intestine.

A lonely very accompanied, the plenary, also found in the small intestine of chickens, pigeons, and guinea fowl. Comes to measuring up to 25 centimeters long.

It happens to the hens when they eat flies and beetles infested, which breed in dung.

To know what a parasite is, to kill a chicken, you will review the guts. If the small intestine observed inflamed and with secretions or with a kind of mucus on the skin of the intestine and when you open it appear parasites, then it is advised to aviculturist that desparasite all the birds in your poultry or chicken coop: chickens, chickens, turkeys, chickens, guineas, ducks, pigeons.

Here you have a poop where it was; it sheds segments containing its larvae.

They will look for a host, and the cycle will begin again.

Treatment:

As a measure of interest, we can highlight the need to move away from the birds and the chicken coop insects and gastropods that act as intermediate hosts, by the use of insecticides and molusquicidas.

Drug-based fenbendazol can be found in specialized stores, poultry, or by means of a veterinarian.

It is applied with two capsules in adult birds, and a capsule in chickens orally, a single dose every three months.

Hygiene is the best way to deal with this threat. There will be cleaning and disinfecting the chicken coop, and also to wash more of continuous feeders and drinkers.

Literature review:

MERCK & CO. (1995). Manual Merck de Veterinaria. Rahway, N. J., EE. UU.

BUXADÉ, P. (1987). The laying hen. Ed. Mundiprensa. Madrid.

DORN, P. (1987). Manual of avian pathology. Ed. Acribia. Zaragoza.

HOFSTAD, M. S. (1984). Diseases of Poultry. Iowa State University Press, Ames, Iowa.

ZARZUELO, E. (1982). Vade mecum of the pathology, infectious poultry. Ed. Aedos, Barcelona.

CASTELLÓ, F. and CASTELLÓ, J. A. (1960). The New Art of Raising Chickens. Aedos, Barcelona.

OROZCO, F. (1989). Breeds of chickens Spanish. Ed. Mundiprensa. Madrid.

LACADENA, J. R. (1998). Genetics. Ed. AGESA

PUERTAS, M.J. (1992). Genetics: Fundamentals and Perspectives. McGraw-Hill Interamericana.

SANCHEZ-MONGE, E. (1969), Genetics. Espasa-Calpe S.A.

OROZCO, F. and ROBLA, F. (1986). Genetic aspects of the León rooster. 24th Symposium of the WPSA (Spanish Section): 199–212.

HILL, J. L. (1973). Genetics, general and applied. Ed. UTEHA.

CASTELLÓ, J. A., LLEONART, R., FIELD, J. L., OROZCO, F. (1989). Biology of the chicken. Real Escuela de Avicultura.

LLEONART, F., ROCA, E., CALLÍS, M., GURRI, A., PONTES, M. (1991). Poultry Hygiene and Pathology. Royal School of Poultry Science.

STURKIE, P.D. (1968). Fisiología aviar, ed. Acribia. Zaragoza.

LOHMANN ANIMAL HEALTH (2012)

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