PREVALENCE OF GASTROINTESTINAL PARASITES AND HISTOLOGY OF INTESTINE OF COLUMBAE IN RURAL AND URBAN AREA OF KANO STATE, NIGERIA.

Abstract Birds consume a diverse diet, including grains, slugs, earthworms, and insects, which can sometimes carry infective stages of helminthes. In Nigeria, several helminthes have been identified as significant threats to domestic pigeon production, causing morbidity and mortality. Helminthes infections can be particularly harmful to pigeons, especially young birds (squabs), by impairing growth, interfering with healthy development, and making older birds more susceptible to secondary infections. This study aim to determine the prevalence of blood and gastrointestinal parasite of the bird (Columbae) in rural and urban areas. The Columbae samples from both areas were collected and analyzed with respect to ethical considerations. The result reveals the present of Plasmodium sp to most of the analyzed samples with some other gastrointestinal parasites which includes Leucocytozoon sp, Haemoproteus sp, Eimeria sp , Trypanosoma sp and T. gallinae the number of parasites isolated were more in the urban samples than in the rural samples this is as a result of environmental influence of certain factors in urban area. The prevalence of gastrointestinal parasites and crops between rural and urban areas birds was studied and it was revealed in the study that the prevalence was more in the urban area than in the rural areal due to environmental influence that facilitating the rate of the parasites.