Worms Lay Eggs Too

Your birds aren't the only ones laying eggs, worms that your chickens carry lay eggs too to survive. Janssen Animal Health, the makers of Flubenvet give us the low down.

To make the species survive, worms living in their host have to produce tremendous numbers of eggs. Those eggs are spread with the excreta in the poultry houses, the nests, on the ground, etc. They first have to "mature" or embryonate. That may happen in two ways: in case of a direct life cycle they embryonate in the environment; in case of an indirect life cycle this will happen in an intermediate host. Once matured and after being taken up by a new host, the larvae will be released from the eggs and develop further to become adult adult worms.

Route of infection:

1. When birds are placed on fresh litter, the worm infection can be brought about by larvae or worm eggs which have been sticking to people, materials, trucks, feed bags, insects, wild birds, cats, dogs, etc. A few grams of dung contaminated with worm eggs are sufficient to re-start a worm infection in a flock.
2. Once the litter is contaminated with worm eggs, it is difficult to stop the cycle of continuous re-infection of the animals. In the birds the eggs develop into adult egg laying worms that, again, contaminate the litter with massive numbers of eggs. In the case of tapeworms, the infection is transmitted by an intermediate host such as snail, fly or beetle. Animals that have an outside run will therefore more easily contract an infection than those that are kept inside. However, even when birds are kept in batteries the infection can not be avoided and is often due to flies and small meal worms.

Worm eggs are hard to break

Worm eggs may remain infectious for months and sometimes for more than a year if circumstances in the litter are favourable. The egg wall is thick and most of the disinfectants are ineffective in achieving their destruction. Worm eggs will even survive in, say, 1/10 N sulphuric acid or in 2% formol.