Prevalence Of Haemosporidia Infection And Genetic Diversity In Domestic Chickens And Red Jungle Fowls

Previous studies found a relationship between parasitic infection and bird gender,with percentage prevalence in most cases higher in males.Some studies also found a relationship between host plumage color and parasitic infection,while others did not.More so,other studies have found a relationship between breeding season of chickens(Gallus gallus domesticus)and parasite infection,free-ranging chickens and parasite infection and the habitats of animals(domestic or wild)and parasite infection.Some authors went further to investigate the genetic diversity in different generations of chickens.We investigated parasite prevalence in correlation with sex and plumage color,breeding and non-breeding,captive and free-ranging,and domestic and wild in chickens in China.We also investigated the genetic diversity in three generations of chickens starting from the red jungle fowl(Gallus gallus).We analyzed a total of 297 blood samples,out of which 234 chickens tested positive for haemosporidian parasites,with 78.5% disease prevalence.Out of 139 males,118 tested positive with 84.8% disease prevalence.Out of 158 female samples,116 tested positive with 73.4% disease prevalence.Parasite prevalence and body weight were generally higher in males than in females,as expected.The differences in the plumage colors were significant,and the group that had only males(red chickens)showed higher values in the body parameters compared to the multicolored(black-yellow,females),black(females),yellow(males and females),and white(males and females)chickens.More so,parasite prevalence was seen to be higher in the breeding season,in free-ranging chickens and in the wild Gallus as compared to their counterparts.We collected 133 samples from three successive generations of three chicken breeds(Wild Gallus(WG),domestic Gallus(TCG and TCbG)and domestic chickens(GZ and YN).We observed genetic diversity using genome-wide SNPs,making it possible to comprehensively conclude that there was high genetic diversity in these three chicken populations.Furthermore,there was great genetic diversity in the red jungle fowl and there is need for the conservation of the genetic diversity of the wild Gallus.