Helminth infections in cage-free laying chickens in Australia- prevalence, coprological diagnosis, and worm egg storage and infectivity in chickens - Dataset

Abstract

This abstract briefly summarizes data collected from a series of experiments forming a total of 5 chapters in Anwar Shifaw’s PhD thesis (2023). The data were collected from field samples and laboratory experiments. One category of data (Chapter 3) was obtained by extracting useful information from published studies in order to compile prevalence data for both qualitative and quantitative analysis. The extracted information included study details (such as authors, years, study regions, breed or strain, age, sex, production system, study design, sampling type, and sample size), diagnostic method, and helminth species and prevalence. Data for chapter 4 were generated from field samples. Measurements include worm count and excreta egg count for assessing worm prevalence and infection intensity. Data for Chapter 5 were derived from egg spiked and naturally infected chicken excreta samples, measuring excreta egg count and the time spent in processing samples by the two egg counting diagnostic methods to evaluate their diagnostic performance. Data for Chapter 6 were obtained from worm eggs recovered from chicken excreta and stored for an extended period of time, with several factors assessing their effects on the developmental stage and egg viability which were expressed as percentage (%). The final experiment (Chapter 7) 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 12 weeks post-infection, and worm counts recorded at 12 weeks post-infection. 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, and worm count cube transformed before analysis to attain normality of data distribution.