Experimental Visceral Larva Migrans in Chicken With Toxocara Canis

Authors: AYŞEN GARGILI, ERKUT TÜZER, AYNUR GÜLENBER, MÜFİT TOPARLAK, İLKER EFİL, VEDAT KELEŞ, MELTEM ULUTAŞ

Abstract: The aim of this study was to determine the distribution of Toxocara canis larvae in some organs of chicks and to clarify if the larvae found in brain will be able to lead to the behavioral disorder or not. For this purpose, 42 15-day-old broiler chicks were allocated to 6 groups, each consisted of 5 trial and 2 control animals (Totally 30 exp. and 12 contr. anim.). Each experimental chick recevied 5000 embriyonated T. canis eggs orally. All animals were necropsied between 2 nd and 12 th days after inoculation with two day intervals. Brain, lung, liver and a half carcass of animals were digested in the pepsin-HCL solution and the digested organs were examined for the presence of larvae. The recovery rates of larvae varied between averages of 11.6% and 24.6% according to the groups and between 2.74% and 46.5% individually. The larvae were found in the livers of all (100%) the experimental animals, in the lungs of 24 (80%) of them and in the brains of 6 (20%) of them, but no larva was detected in their carcasses. The distribution rates of recovered larvae according to the groups were between 92.87% and 99.83% in liver, between 0.17% and 7.13% in lung and between 0% and 0.14% in brain. No larva was detected in control animals. No behavioral disorder was observed in either control or experimental animals.

Keywords: Visceral larva migrans, Toxocara canis, chicken.

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