Lice in different breeds of chicken: a survey

In the present investigation prevalence of different species of lice was noted on poultry birds belonging to organized farm and backyard system. On organized farm the prevalence was 100% and on local desi birds it was 62%. Among all the birds screened Lipeurus caponis (41.30%) was found out to be the most predominant species. The other species of louse found in order of declining occurrence were Cuclotogaster heterographus (40.87%) Menacanthus spp (31.74%) Menopon gallinae (18.70%) Goniodes gigas (4.35%) and Goniocotes gallinae (2.61%). The lice encountered in the present study showed marked region specificity. Head wing and body were the three regions which showed higher rate of occurrence of lice. Cuclotogaster heterographus and Lipeurus caponis were predominantly found on head and wing regions respectively. Similarly the Menacanthus spp and Menopon gallinae were predominantly encountered on the body region. The birds from organized poultry farm of CPDO belonging to four distinct breeds viz. WLH Aseel Giriraj and Kadaknath which also showed statistically significant difference (P≤0.05) in the occurrence rate of different species of lice.