Parasitic Survey of Wild Birds in the Province of Balochistan

Abstract

The data collected through this project comprises the most important survey of avian haemotoza ever under taken in Pakistan particularly in the province of Balochistan. Blood smears were examined from over 1020 individuals birds of 46 species representing 26 families (Appendix-A). The over-all infection of blood parasites was recorded 13.52% from 138 birds belonging to different species (Table-12). The prevalence of Haemoproteus was 8.23%, Plasmodium 3.43%, leucocytozoon 0.88%, Microfilaria 0.39%, Trypanosoma 0.09% and un-identified parasites were less commonly observed. Haemotozoan prevalence in different geographical regions were compared (Appendix-B). A large proportion of the birds from sibi and Quetta than from other collection sites harbored haematozoa. This was partially due to the different species assemblages sampled at the various locations (Table-12) Haemoproteus was found much more common parasite in all these areas. Those of the plasmodium was the second commonest but were absent from few areas. Haemoproteus prevalence varied, ranging from 4.34% to 16.66%. Certain birds families represented by 100 or more individuals from each area showed relatively less parasitism. (Appendix-B). Almost all of the bird species examined are listed for the first time as hosts for haematozoa from Pakistan (Appendix-D). The largest samples of migratory cranes (180 in numbers) were observed for the first time in the world. Most of the parasites reported herein were identified upto generic level. A few were identified below generic level due to bodly prepared slides some were damaged in the field due to bad weather and other climatic factors and a few were poorly stained, and species determination were impractical. Due to shortage of time, funds and transport facilities vector study, seasonal variations and cytological study were not undertaken during this survey. Anyhow it is the hope of the author that bioligists, working in Pakistan who have interest in vector-borne diseases, medical-vectorinary entomolgy or avain parasitology, will utilize this baseline information presented herein a devel deep into the biology of these parasites.