Parasites of poultry in Nigeria from 1980 to 2022: a review

Poultry production is crucial for food and nutrition security level through the provision of eggs and meat and it also generates income. However, parasitic diseases are among the major constraints to the poultry industry across the world as they can affect the health, welfare, and production performance. These parasitic diseases can be broadly classified as endo-, ecto- and haemoparasites and they occur as single infection or in combination and affect productivity of poultry in Nigeria. This review focuses on summarizing all the major classes of parasitic diseases of poultry in Nigeria from 1980 to 2022. We search two electronic databases (Google Scholar and AJOL) to retrieve relevant articles published from 1980 to 2022 across the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria comprising both North and South. Our findings regarding endo-parasites, indicates that the major species of nematodes registered includes Ascaridia galli, Heterakis gallinarum, Subuluru brumpti and Capillaria species. As per cestodes, some of the documented species from published literature were Raillietina species (specifically R. tetragona, R. cesticillus and R. echinobothrida) and Choanotaenia infundibulum. Prosthogonimus species was the only documented trematodes infecting poultry in Nigeria. On the side of ecto-parasites, almost all the major groups which include ticks (Argas persicus, and Ornothodoros moubata), mites (Dermanyssus gallinae and Knemidocoptes mutans), fleas (Echinophaga gallinacean) and lice (Menacanthus stramineus, Menopon gallinae, Lipeurus caponis and Columbicola columbae) have all been documented infesting poultry across the country. Lastly, protozoan parasites including haemoparasites (Plasmodium spp., Haemoproteus spp. and Leucocytozoon spp.) and coccidian (Eimeria spp. and Cryptosporidium spp.) were observed to infect poultry in Nigeria. In conclusion, this review has provided available information on the occurrence and distribution of the ecto-, endo- and haemoparasites in different types of poultry in Nigeria.