ABSTRACT

Keeping poultry safe from disease is a key factor in efficient production and sustainability. Diseases of poultry take many forms, the best known being bacterial and viral. Parasites are a diverse group, including protozoa, roundworms, flatworms, insects and mites. Parasites are common. Indeed, it is uncommon for poultry not to have parasites at some time. The impact of parasitic diseases, in contrast to bacterial and viral diseases, depends on the intensity of infection, or in other words, the number of invading parasites. The aim of disease management is to keep parasites in low numbers.