Prevalence of cestode parasites in free-range backyard chickens (Gallus gallus domestics) of Kashmir, India

The present study was carried out on free-range backyard chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus) from April 2011 to March 2012 (10 hosts per month) to determine the prevalence, mean intensity and species diversity of cestode parasites of domestic fowl in Kashmir valley, northwest Himalayan region of India. Of the total 120 (50 male and 70 female) chickens collected from different localities of Kashmir, 103 (85.83 %) were found infected with cestode parasites. In this survey nine cestode parasites belonging to four genera were recovered from the gastrointestinal tract of infected chickens. The cestode species and their prevalence were: Raillietina tetragona (65%), R. cesticillus (22.50%), R. echinobothrida (33.33%), R. spiralis (26.66%), Choanotaenia infundibulum (18.33%), C. gondwana (10.83%), Amoebotaenia cuneata (20.00%), A. domesticu