Abstract

The prevalence of chewing lice from four random selected rural localities in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, was carried out. Goniocotes gigas, Menopon gallinae, Goniodes gigas, and Cuclogaster heterographus were recorded, and the most prevalent species across the localities was Menopon gallinae, with a mean prevalence of (96,8%) followed by Goniocotes gallinae (57,0%) and Gonoiodes gigas (56,4%). Cuclogaste heterographus and L.caponis recorded low prevalences of 22.2% and 13.1% respectively. Shogweni (SH) and Mvoti (MV) recorded one bird each with no infestation, whilst all birds from Maphumulo (MP) and Port Shepstone (PS) were infested. Mutliple lice species infestation (3 or more species/birds) ranged from 33.3% - 63.3% across the localities.