A survey of gastro-intestinal parasitic infection in domestic and wild birds in Chittagong and Greater Sylhet, Bangladesh

A survey of gastrointestinal parasitic infection as determined by faecal examination was conducted among domestic and wild birds in Bangladesh. Birds were sampled from households, wet markets and wetlands in Chittagong and Greater Sylhet districts during April 2012 to February 2013. Mist nets were used to catch resident wild and migratory birds. The overall prevalence of parasitic infection ranged among locations from 25 to 55% in indigenous domestic ducks (live bird samples. = 304), 20% in resident wild birds (environmental faecal samples. = 40) and 40% in migratory birds (live bird samples. = 35). The prevalence of parasitic infection was significantly higher in indigenous domestic ducks collected during summer (39%) than winter (22%) (p= 0.04). In domestic indigenous ducks and Muscovy ducks, both single and multiple types of parasitic infections were found. However, other domestic birds and wild birds often had a single type of parasitic infection. Ascaridia spp. with an average egg load of 50-900, was commonly detected in faecal samples of domestic and wild birds in this study. Other identified parasites were Capillaria spp. and Heterakis spp. both in domestic and wild birds. Improvement of biosecurity measures for household duck farms through educating and motivating household farmers could help mitigate the effects of parasitic infection on production

Molecular epidemiology of influenza A (H5N1) viruses, Bangladesh, 2007-2011

To investigate the origins, evolution and patterns of spread of HPAI H5N1 outbreaks in Bangladesh, we performed a phylogenetic reconstruction analysis using Bayesian methods. The analysis was conducted using 81 hemagglutinin (HA) gene sequences from the H5N1 viruses isolated in Bangladesh from 2007 to 2011, together with 264 publicly available HA sequences of clade 2.2, 2.3.2 and 2.3.4 retrieved from GenBank. Our study provides evidence that clade 2.2.2 viruses that caused outbreaks in Bangladesh were lineages independent from the viruses introduced earlier into India. Furthermore, the Bangladesh clade 2.2.2 descendents subsequently spread to India and Bhutan. This has implications for avian influenza control in southern Asia suggesting multiple routes of entry of the virus including one pathway that spread to neighboring countries via Bangladesh. © 2013 Elsevier B.V