Poultry Disease and Raising Quail. (Part 5)
Parasitic diseases (external)
Gapeworms
The gapeworm (Syngamus trachea) is a round red worm that attach to
the trachea (windpipe) of birds and causes the disease referred to as
“gapes”. The term describes the open-mouth breathing characteristic of
gapeworm-infected birds. Heavily infected birds usually emit a grunting
sound because of the difficulty in breathing and many die from
suffocation. The worms can easily block the trachea, so they are
particularly harmful to young birds.
The gapeworm is sometimes designated as the “red-worm”; or “forkedworm”
because of its red color and because the male and female are
joined in permanent copulation. They appear like the letter Y. The
female is the larger of the two and is one-fourth to one inch in length.
The male gapeworm may attain a length of one-fourth inch. Both sexes
attach to the lining of the trachea with their mouthparts. Sufficient numbers may accumulate in the trachea to hinder air passage.
The life cycle of the gapeworm is similar to that of the cecal worm; the
parasite can be transmitted when birds eat embryonated worm eggs or
earthworms containing the gapeworm larvae. The female worm lays
eggs in the trachea, the eggs are coughed up, swallowed, and pass out
in the droppings. Within eight to fourteen days the eggs embryonate
and are infective when eaten by birds or earthworms. The earthworm,
snails and slugs serve as primary intermediate hosts for the gapeworm.
Gapeworms in infected earthworms remain viable for four and a half
years while those in snails and slugs remain infective for one year.
After being consumed by the bird, gapeworm larvae hatch in the intestine and migrate from the intestine to the trachea and lungs.
Gapeworms infect chickens, turkeys, guinea fowl, pheasants, chukar
partridge, and probably other birds. Young birds reared on soil of
infected range pens are at high risk (pen-raised game birds). Some
control or reduction in infection density (worms/bird) is achieved by
alternating the use of range pens every other year and/or using a pen
for only one brood each year. Tilling the soil in the pens at the end of
the growing season helps to reduce the residual infection. Treating the
soil to eliminate earthworms, snails and slugs is possible but the cost is usually prohibitive.
Gapeworms are best prevented by administering a wormer at fifteen to
thirty day intervals or including a drug at low levels continuously
beginning fifteen days after birds are placed in the infected pens. One
drug that is effective for eliminating gapeworms is fenbendazole,
however, its use is not presently approved for use in birds by the Food
and Drug Administration.
All the information above can be found at www.msucares.com. It is to be used for educational purposes only.
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