OPTIONS FOR EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT OF HELMINTH INFECTION IN RURAL POULTRY FED WITH TERMITES IN GHANA

Abstract

Feeding of termites to poultry is a common practice among resource poor rural farmers in Northern Ghana. Termites though highly nutritious and cheap, also act as hosts to several helminths that infect poultry upon ingestion. This study sought to find practical ways of minimising helminth infection of rural poultry fed with termites. Two approaches were used, preventive and curative. In the preventive approach, termites were trapped with baits enriched with ethno veterinary de wormers; Carica papaya seeds (CPB), and Incasina lycosfera leaves (ILB) before feeding the termites to birds, while some termites were treated with moist heat (MH) before feeding to birds. In the curative approach, birds were fed with termites and then treated with piperizine (PW) or Carica papaya seed in their drinking water for a week (CPW). The preventive approaches (CPB, MH and ILB) gave the least termite infection level among birds. (6.6 %) Whilst the curative approach (CPW and PW) had high prevalence of termite infection (20%). In the control (no intervention), helmith infection was the highest (30 %) Strongyloides avium infected (77.8 %) while Ascais galliinfected 22 % of all birds infected with helminths.