Ascariasis in a Kamrupa fowl-pathology and morphological study of A. galli

Ascariasis is one of the most common parasitic diseases, which affects chicken, turkey, duck and goose causing great economic losses to the farmers. Necropsy of a male Kamrupa fowl aged 303 days was conducted in the Department of Veterinary Pathology with clinical history of retarded growth, anorexia, drowsiness. The carcass showed emaciation, prominent keel bone and enteritis. A tangled mass of worms occluded the intestinal lumen. Microscopic examination of the affected part of intestine showed degeneration, necrosis and sloughing of the mucosal epithelial cells of the intestinal villi with infiltration of large numbers of mononuclear cells and few polymorphonuclear cells. Studies on the morphological characters of the recovered worm showed oral opening was surrounded by 3 trilobed lips at the anterior end, in female location of the anus was just anterior to the tail end, tail was straight and provided with a caudal spine etc. Based on various morphological features, the parasite was identified as Ascaridia galli.