© Science and Education Publishing DOI:10.12691/wjar-1-3-3 Ectoparasite Survey of Quarantined Animals in a

Abstract The presence of ectoparasites in animals creates a multitude of health risks to both the host animals and to the humans who come in contact with these animals. This study aims to conduct an ectoparasite survey among those quarantined animals in a wildlife rescue center and determine the distribution of the ectoparasites in their hosts. Acetate strip technique and manual extraction methods were employed to collect the ectoparasites from the animals brought in the wildlife rescue center. About 53 % of the quarantined animals in the wildlife rescue center were positive for ectoparasitic infestation. A total of 344 ectoparasites were recovered from 51 birds and 6 mammals quarantined in the wildlife rescue center. Of the total ectoparasites, 23 are lice and 321 are mites. The ectoparasites obtained from the survey showed that the isolated ectoparasites belong to 11 different taxa. No statistical significant differences were observed on the Shannon Wiener Diversity Indices across all the 8 weeks of collection (p> 0.05)