Response of Northern bobwhite () and two parasitic nematode populations in western Oklahoma to anthelmintic supplemental feed.

It has been demonstrated that helminths are capable of critically impacting the fitness of their hosts. This has typically been shown experimentally through the administration of anthelmintic drugs but are rarely performed on a landscape or host population scale. Here, the anthelmintic fenbendazole (FBZ) was mixed in a supplemental feed and provided to a free-ranging population of Northern bobwhite quail ().

IMPLICATIONS OF TREATING PARASITIC INFECTION IN NORTHERN BOBWHITE (COLINUS VIRGINIANUS) ON OVERALL HELMINTH LIFE CYCLE.

This study was conducted to determine how reducing the parasite burden in a definitive host may affect the prevalence in intermediate hosts. Here we used the eyeworm Oxyspirura petrowi and cecal worm Aulonocephalus pennula as model species. Northern bobwhite quail (Colinus virginianus) were provided an anthelmintic medicated feed in wild systems because of convincing evidence that these parasites were suppressing their populations.