Occurrence of Aspergillus Species among Apparently Healthy Chickens in Poulty Farms in Kaduna State, Nigeria

The study was conducted to determine the occurrence of Aspergilllus species among apparently healthy birds in poultry farms. Trachea swabs were collected from a total of 1500 birds in 52 commercial (10% of birds in each poultry farm visited) poultry farms were sampled. Aspergillus sp. was isolated from 718 (47.87%) of the birds. Six species of Aspergillus were isolated viz: A. fumigatus made up 52.37% (376) of the Aspergillus isolates followed by A. flavus 21.87% (157), A. niger 11.42% (82), A. terreus 8.64% (62), A. restrictus 2.79% (20) and A. ochraceous 2.92% (21). Aspergillus species were isolated throughout the year though with a higher incidence during the rainy season compared to the dry season.