A Study of Gastro – Intestinal Helminths in Native Peafowl and Comparative Efficacy of Albendazole and Pyrantel Pamoate against the Helminth Parasites

Received: Revised: Accepted: 2013–11–17 2014–02–28 2014–03–04 The study was conducted to determine the infection rate of helminths in peafowls and to evaluate the comparative efficacy of two broad spectrum anthelmintics. For this purpose, fecal samples of 87 different breeds of peafowls were collected and tested for the presence of helminths. Fecal samples were examined by direct smear and centrifugal floatation methods for qualitative examination. For quantitative examination McMaster Egg Counting Technique was used. We found that 56.32% (49 out of 87) peafowls were positive for gastrointestinal helminths. Single or mixed infection of Heterakis gallinae, Ascaridia galli, Davainea proglottina, Capillaria columbae and Acuaria spiralis was present with their individual percentage was 36.73%, 26.53%, 6.12%, 18.37% and 12.24%, respectively. Out of these 49 birds 48 positive birds were divided in 3 groups A, B and C, each comprising of 16 birds. The uninfected and untreated birds were kept in group D. Chemotherapeutic trials were conducted to the birds of group A and B. While group C served as positive control and group D served as negative control for chemotherapeutic trials. Group A was treated with Albendazole 0.1ml/kg body weight and group B was treated with Pyrantel pamoate (0.1 mL /kg body weight). We found that Albendazole is more effective against gastrointestinal helminths having 94.92% efficacy as compare to Pyrantel pamoate which showed 78.34% efficacy on 10 day of drug treatment. All copyrights reserved to Nexus® academic publishers