Vet on call: Yes, gapeworms are widespread on farms

My September 29 article on gapeworms in poultry has helped highlight the plight of farmers with the pest.

I can now confidently say that gapeworms exist in the country mainly in free-range and backyard chicken.

The presence of a disease is confirmed even with observation of only one case while the frequency of occurrence gives the number of cases observed in a stated period or in a certain percentage of the population.

It can also be given in ratios based on population attributes such as disease observation in males and females, young in comparison to the old or animals reared in confinement as compared to those in free-range.

In the article, I elaborated on gapeworms in chickens and other birds and concluded by requesting readers to report if they thought they had gapeworms in their birds.

Infestation is the presence of parasitic disease-causing organisms in or around body organs while infection is the presence of disease-causing micro-organisms inside body tissues and cells. Therefore, worms will infest chickens while bacteria, viruses, protozoa and fungi infect the poultry.

The calls started coming in the same day the article ran, meaning that Kenyan farmers are good readers who have faith in the information carried by the papers.

Kimani from Karatina told me he had almost 200 turkeys in early August but they had all died of a disease he thought could be related to gapeworms.

He had planned to sell the birds this Christmas but now he had only remained with 12.

He said his birds coughed, stayed quiet, stopped eating and then died, despite treatment by his veterinary service providers.

I could not conclude he had an outbreak of gapeworms because no postmortem examination was done to assess the condition of the voice box (larynx), trachea, bronchi and the lungs of the dead birds.

I, however, told him gape worm infestation was not the only disease that could cause respiratory problems in turkeys. There are other diseases caused by micro-organisms such as bacteria, fungi and viruses.

EFFECTIVE DEWORMER

Next was Ocharo from Migori. His observations were more like gapeworm infestation. He said his chicken kept squeaking, shaking the head, gaping and coughing. They would waste and then die.

Ocharo had not sought the assistance of a veterinary service provider. I advised him to get professional help.

I got many other calls that described possible gapeworm infestation in chicken reared on free-range or in backyard enclosures. In all the reports, the environment and method of rearing were conducive for gapeworm infestation.

The calls came from Baringo, Uasin Gishu, Vihiga, Kakamega, Siaya, Nyeri, Kisumu, Bomet and Nairobi.

Let me share the Bomet and Nairobi incidents because they confirmed beyond reasonable doubt that gapeworms are rampant in Kenya.

Lawrence called from Githurai on September 30 and teased me, “Doc, why were you talking about my cock in your article yesterday?” He explained that he had a cock that was behaving exactly as I had described in the article.

He concluded it must have been having gapeworms and requested I go and examine the bird. He suggested I could even sacrifice the bird to demonstrate the worms’ presence since he understood from the write up that the meat was safe for human consumption.

On October 3, Emanuel called from Bomet describing signs of gapeworm in his free-range chickens. I was convinced he was seeing the right signs.

I advised him to seek the services of a qualified veterinary service provider who would slaughter one of the affected birds and carry out a thorough postmortem examination.

The service provider would be required to open the trachea down to the bronchi and purposefully look for gapeworms. We agreed he would ask the service provider to talk to me on phone after carrying out the examination.

Korir called me the following day on behalf of Emanuel and confirmed he had seen gapeworms at the point of branching of the bronchi in one of the farmers’ chickens. A few other birds showed signs of infestation and he requested me to prescribe an effective dewormer, which I promptly did.

INTEREST POULTRY RESEARCHERS

The service provider identified himself as a veterinary para-professional with 30 years of experience but he had never seen a case of gapeworms before. He described his observation as small red worms, some of them coiled into a ball while a few had a Y shape. That confirmed to me he had seen gapeworms.

I visited Lawrence as agreed on the evening of October 5. He had already heated the water for de-feathering the suspect cock.

He reared his chicken in a backyard enclosure. Lawrence told me he kept seeing lots of snails in his compound and his birds liked eating them.

I observed the cock was in very good body condition, meaning the illness reported had been there only for a short while. The bird would shake its head, squeak, cough and gape.

He assisted me to slaughter the cock. I then carefully slit the larynx and sure enough, gapeworms in a ball of blood-tinged mucous welcomed me into the bird’s airway.

When the bird was alive, it was shaking the head in an attempt to dislodge this ball, which partially blocked the trachea and interfered with breathing.

The poor bird did not know the worms were anchored onto the wall of the larynx and, therefore, could not be dislodged.

“Are we still eating the meat?” Lawrence quipped as I thanked him for availing me the opportunity to see my first live case of gapeworms in chicken. I prescribed for him the medicine he would give all his remaining chicken to remove gapeworms.

Since we have very scanty information on gapeworms in Kenya, this finding should interest poultry researchers to profile and document the prevalence and economic impact of gapeworms in Kenya.