Aves, Linnaeus, 1758

Murnik, Lea-Christina, Schm, Ronald, aschke, Bernhard, Andreas, Thielebein, Jens, Eulenberger, Klaus, Barownick, Nadine, Gawlowska, Sandra & Delling, Cora, 2024, Parasitological examination results of zoo animals in Germany between 2012 and 2022, International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife 24, pp. 100942-100942 : 100942-

3.1.6. Aves

Overall, 2088 samples belonging to different bird species were

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examined. The most frequently found parasite was Capillaria in 7.8% of the samples. Furthermore, 7.6% of the samples tested positive for Ascaridida . All of the respective samples belonged to the two species Ascaridia spp. ( Fig. 1b ) and Heterakis spp. , which eggs cannot be distinguished easily from each other using the light microscope. Birds from the orders Psittaciformes (15.2%; 16.8%), Galliformes (16.8%; 24.8%) and Accipitriformes (25%; 37.5%) were infected with the Capillaria and Ascarids respectively (Supplementary Material Table 1). Furthermore, coccidia oocysts were detected in 6.4% of the samples especially in the orders Passeriformes (17.6%) and Galliformes (14.7%). The zoonotic protozoan T. gondii was also found within Aves. After pathological examination, samples of the brain, liver and spleen of a western crowned pigeon were analyzed by PCR and found positive for T. gondii . Further parasites occurring in this order are listed in Table 2.

Figures

Fig. 1. a) Trichodina spp. from a koi; b) Egg of Ascaridia platyceri from a Platycercus elegans; c) Egg of Oxyurida from a turtle; d) Egg of Enterobius vermicularis from a chimpanzee; e) Haematomyzus elephantis from an elephant; f) Ornithonyssus bacoti from a hamster.