Cestode Parasites of Birds Morphological peculiarities

Cestodes are endo-parasitic tapeworms which during their life cycle require at least one intermediate host and a definitive host. Many tapeworms have a two-phase life cycle with two types of host. The adult form lives in the gut of a primate. Gravid proglottids leave the body through the anus and fall onto the ground, where they are eaten with grass by grazing animals like cows that act as intermediate hosts. The larval forms or the juveniles migrate and establish as cysts in the intermediate hosts body tissues such as muscles. They cause more damage to this host than it does to its definitive host. The parasite completes its life cycle when the intermediate host passes on the parasite to the definitive host. The morphology of the cestode parasites isolated from the open air Poultry birds from different regions of Kashmir Valley has been described.