Ectoparasite Survey of Quarantined Animals in a Wildlife Rescue Center in Quezon City, Philippines

Glenn l. Sia Su^1, , Christian James A. Amil¹, Jilly Ann P. San Juan¹, Maria Lilibeth L. Sia Su², Glenn S. Maguad³, Rizza A.F. Salinas³, Elena M. Ragragio¹, Anna Theresa A. Santiago¹ and Gliceria B. Ramos⁴

¹Biology Department, College of Arts and Sciences, University of the Philippines-Manila, Manila, Philippines

²College of Medicine, University of the Philippines-Manila, Manila, Philippines

³Wildlife Rescue Center, Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Quezon City, Philippines

⁴Biology Department, College of Science, De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines

Cite this paper

Glenn l. Sia Su, Christian James A. Amil, Jilly Ann P. San Juan, Maria Lilibeth L. Sia Su, Glenn S. Maguad, Rizza A.F. Salinas, Elena M. Ragragio, Anna Theresa A. Santiago and Gliceria B. Ramos. Ectoparasite Survey of Quarantined Animals in a Wildlife Rescue Center in Quezon City, Philippines. World Journal of Agricultural Research. 2013; 1(3):44-47. doi: 10.12691/WJAR-1-3-3

Abstract

The presence of ectoparasites in animals creates a multitude of health risks to both the host animals and to the humans who come in contact with these animals. This study aims to conduct an ectoparasite survey among those quarantined animals in a wildlife rescue center and determine the distribution of the ectoparasites in their hosts. Acetate strip technique and manual extraction methods were employed to collect the ectoparasites from the animals brought in the wildlife rescue center. About 53% of the quarantined animals in the wildlife rescue center were positive for ectoparasitic infestation. A total of 344 ectoparasites were recovered from 51 birds and 6 mammals quarantined in the wildlife rescue center. Of the total ectoparasites, 23 are lice and 321 are mites. The ectoparasites obtained from the survey showed that the isolated ectoparasites belong to 11 different taxa. No statistical significant differences were observed on the Shannon Wiener Diversity Indices across all the 8 weeks of collection (p > 0.05).

Keywords

ectoparasite, parasite, species diversity

Copyright

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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