Article Citation: Suhad Y. Jassim and Hind Dyia Hadi Isolation and identification of blood parasites of quail in Baghdad area Journal of Research in Ecology (2018) 6(1): 1589-1592

Isolation and identification of blood parasites of quail in Baghdad area

Keywords: Blood parasites, Plasmodium, Quail, Middle of Iraq.

Authors:

Suhad Y. Jassim and

Hind Dyia Hadi

Institution:

Iraq Natural History

Research Center and

Museum, Bab Al-Muadham,

University of Baghdad, Iraq.

Corresponding author:

Suhad Y. Jassim

Web Address:

http://ecologyresearch.info/

documents/EC0548.pdf

ABSTRACT: 20 specimens of the quail bird belonging to the family Phasianidae were collected from different and random areas of Baghdad city (central Iraq) for the period between February-May 2017 were examined for blood parasite. Only one genus, the Plasmodium sp. was identified in 10 samples with 50% infection rate.

Dates: Received: 28 Feb 2018 Accepted: 16 March 2018 Published: 27 April 2018

1589-1592 | JRE | 2018 | Vol 6 | No 1

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INTRODUCTION

According to the fourth national report of the

convention on biological diversity, it has been con-

firmed that the list of Iraqi birds includes 417 bird spe-

cies, 118 of them are migratory birds (Anonymous,

2010), among these birds is the quail Coturnix coturnix

which belongs to the order of Galliformes and Phasiani-

dae family which are heavily deployed in Iraqi territory.

Quail is a bird used in productive-economic projects, its

size is small with long wings and short tail and its origi-

nal home is Japan (Mahdi and Georg, 1969; Ghani et

al., 2008). The quail is a wild bird that can migrate and

fly from place to place and then return to its homeland

(Shanaway, 1994). Studies on the blood parasites of

birds, especially quail, were very few in relation to the

large diversity of bird populations in the local and for-

eign environment (Jasim, 2006; Youssef and Mansour,

2014). Among those studies (Shamsuddin and Moham-

mad, 1981) which is considered one of the first studies

that concern the parasites of blood in Iraqi birds, many

studies are done as follows Mohammad, (1990, 1991

and 1996), (Mohammad, 2012; Islam et al., 2013; Bahar

et al., 2014; Peterson, 2007; Bradley et al., 2004). The

aim of this work is to isolate and diagnose the parasites

that affect the quail blood located in the city of Baghdad

(central of Iraq).

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Adult birds (20) of quail were collected from

different areas of Baghdad governorate (center of Iraq)

from February to May 2017 were caught alive by the

bird hunting nets. The birds were ethically handled and

brought to the laboratory, blood was obtained by mak-

ing a small wound in the wing vein (peripheral blood)

and without harming the bird, a thin smear is done and

left to dry, then the smear is fixed by absolute methanol,

stained with Giemsa's stain for an hour, wash with tap

water and leave to dry, the blood film is then examined

by a compound microscope on the oil lens (100x) to

check for parasites and identification of the types, the

slide is imaged using digital camera (Infinity lite-K 100)

attached to the compound microscope (Micros MCX

100) (Bennett and Campbell, 1972; Mohammad, 1991).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The bird used in the current study is quail and,

as mentioned previously, it is a migratory bird and

widely present in Iraq. As a result of this work, only one

of the protozoan parasites genus; Plasmodium sp

(Figure 1 a and b) was found in ten of the samples from

a total of 20 birds samples of quail with an infection rate

of 50%, this result is consistent with the findings of

(Mohammed, 2012) but the infection rate was very low

compared to the current study, (Mohammad et al.,

2001) also, the percentage of infection was very low,

Shamsuddin and Mohammad, (1981) recorded the pres-

ence of plasmodium in addition to two new species-first

recorded in Iraq but with lower infection when they

studied blood parasites in Iraqi birds, Shaapan et al.

(2011) found Cryptosporidium sp in fecal and serum

Jassim and Hadi, 2018

1590 Journal of Research in Ecology (2018) 6(1): 1589-1592

Figure 1. Plasmodium sp

a b

samples from native quails. This indicates that

Plasmodium sp affects almost all types of domestic and

wild birds in the world, especially migratory birds be-

cause of their movement from area to another and gets

infected with many diseases viz., viral, bacterial, parasit-

ic and sometimes infected with new species of parasites

according to the area migrated from them and also ac-

cording to the presence of carrier that transmits the dis-

ease (Youssef and Mansour, 2014; Wettere, 2018). The

infection rate in this study is significant compared to

other studies. As is known, randomly collecting samples

in any experiment helps to obtain good results and this

is what happened in this work too. The biological diver-

sity of the Iraqi environment is also another cause of the

infections. The absence of other species of parasites in

this study is an evidence of the presence of plasmodium

only in this region and this time specifically.

CONCLUSION

From this work it can be concluded that

Coturnix coturnix belonging to the family Phasianidae

is infected with many blood parasites, especially

Plasmodium which affects wild and domestic birds, A

total of 20 bird were sampled in which, 10 of them

were infected with Plasmodium sp with a (50%) infec-

tion rate. Studies on blood parasites of birds in general

and on quail specially are few, so in the future it is

possible to expand the studies in this line, As well as

studying the pathological and physiological effects of

parasites on birds.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I extend my thanks and appreciation to everyone

who contributed to this work. I especially mention my

professor Mohammad K. Mohammad who has been

credited with diagnosing parasites. I am also thankful to

Hind Dyia Hadi, assistant lecturer and Khalida Ibrahim

Hasson, assistant researcher who contributed effectively

to the collection of samples and work slides.

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