Propagation and anthelmintic efficacy testing of Australian chicken nematodes - Dataset

Abstract

This abstract briefly summarizes data collected from a series of experiments forming a total of 6 chapters in Teka Dewo’s PhD thesis (2022). The data were collected from about 8 different field and laboratory experiments conducted at different times on chicken gastrointestinal nematodes and cover worm egg recovery, storage, propagation in chickens and in vivo/ in vitro anthelmintic efficacy testing. One category of data was generated from an online survey of producers which was implemented using SurveyMonkey platform. Data from the first experiment (Chapter 3) were generated from studies on worm eggs/larvae and include in vitro egg production by mature female worms (total count), egg embryonation (described as five egg morphological stages), and viability and hatching, most of which were expressed as percentage (%). The second experiment (Chapter 4) was a worm propagation study and measurements included chicken body weight and excreta egg count (EEC, expressed as eggs/gram of excreta/EPG) recorded over time until 10 weeks post-infection, and excreta consistency score (ECS) and worm counts recorded at 8 and 10 weeks post-infection. For in vivo anthelmintic efficacy studies (chapters 5, 6 and 7 which involved 5 experiments) the measurements were mainly pre- and post-treatment EEC (expressed as EPG) recorded on the day of anthelmintic treatment (day 0) and then 10 days post-treatment, and worm counts (adult, luminal larvae and histotrophic larvae) recorded 10 days post-treatment. Two experiments (Chapter 6) also assessed effect of anthelmintics on embryonation of eggs recovered from worms eliminated following treatment and measurements were percentage egg embryonation (described as five egg morphological stages). Measurements for the in vitro anthelmintic efficacy study (chapter 8) included worm egg recovery efficiency from excreta (%), morphological quality of eggs (% intact or damaged eggs), developmental ability of eggs (%) described as five egg morphological stages, larval hatching (%) and survival over time (%), inhibition of egg embryonation (%) and inhibition of larval migration (%). All data collected from each experiment were entered into excel file separately with detailed information and keys of different abbreviations used on separate sheets. Data from some parameters such as EEC, worm count and drug concentrations were log transformed before analysis to attain normality of data distribution.