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The effect of an experimental infection of the nematode Heterakis gallinarum on hand-reared grey partridges Perdix perdix

We compared 26 hand-reared grey partridges given an experimental infection of the caecal nematode Heterakis gallinarum with 26 uninfected ones. Under laboratory conditions after 91 days, there were no measurable clinical effects of the infection. We found no effect of treatment on the amount of food eaten or on caecal dropping production. However, treated birds, in particular females, developed slightly lower body mass (around 2%) compared to the controls. At post-mortem examination, we found a positive relationship between breast muscle mass and the number of worms collected from the caeca of treated birds. Treated birds with no worms when examined had smaller breast muscle mass (4·6%) compared to the uninfected control birds. These results are largely different to those found in a similar study that documented significant negative impacts on most of these factors in 8 infected birds compared to 6 controls. Its findings were used in a published model to support a hypothesis that H. gallinarum maintained in the environment by common pheasants, the primary host for this worm, could negatively affect wild grey partridge productivity and survival. In the same model our data would not support this hypothesis. Possible explanations for the different results from the 2 experiments are discussed. Together they suggest that only in certain, as yet unidentified circumstances, could experimental H. gallinarum infections have deleterious effects on hand-reared grey partridges.