coccidiosis is parasitic disease of intestinal tract of animals. a protozoan called coccidia is responsible for it

2. COCCIDIOSIS

3. What is
coccidiosis?
Coccidia are microscopic parasites
called protozoa from the genus
Eimeria.
Several species of Eimeria affect
sheep, goats, poultry, cattle, pig and
equines but not all are pathogenic
Coccidia develop in the intestinal
tract and produce oocysts (eggs)
that pass in the manure

4. Etiology
• Many different Eimeria spp., Isospora spp.
• The incubation period is 17–21 days
• The pathogenic coccidial species are as follows:
• Cattle: Eimeria zuernii, E. bovis (smithiz) and E. ellipsoidalis.
E. alabamensis, E. auburnnsis and E. wyomingensis may also
cause disease in calves
• Sheep: E. arloingi A (ovina), E. weybridgenis (E. arloingi B),
E. crandallis, E. ahsata and E. ovinoidalis (previously known
as E. ninakohlyakimovae) and E. gilruthi
• Goat: E. arloingi, E.faurei and E. gilruthi, E. caprovina,
E. ninakohlyakimovae and E. christenseni
• Pigs: Isospor suis, E. debliecki, E. scabr and E. perminuta
• Equines: E. leuckarti

5. EPIDEMIOLOGY
• Who: Young calves, lambs, pig lets, poultry, kids and, rarely,
foals. Infection rate is high, clinical disease much less
common;
• Where: Worldwide, most commonly in animals housed or
confined in small areas contaminated with oocysts
• When: commonly affect young ones, no specific season,
rather risk factors are there
• Risk factors: coccidia are opportunistic pathogens, the
virulence of pathogenic strains is influenced by various
stressor, therefore prevalent in:
• Poor nutrition
• Poor sanitation or overcrowding
• Weaning stress
• Transportation stress
• Sudden change of feed
• Contaminanted feed
• Severe weather

6. Pathogenesis

7. • Infection results from ingestion of infective oocysts. Under favorable conditions of oxygen, humidity, and
temperature, oocysts sporulate and become infective in several days. During sporulation, the amorphous
protoplasm develops into small bodies (sporozoites) within secondary cysts (sporocysts) in the oocyst.
• When the sporulated oocyst is ingested by a susceptible animal, the sporozoites escape from the oocyst, invade
the intestinal mucosa or epithelial cells in other locations, and develop intracellularly into multinucleate schizonts
(also called meronts). Each nucleus develops into an infective body called a merozoite; merozoites enter new cells
and repeat the process. After a variable number of asexual generations, merozoites develop into either
macrogametocytes (females) or microgametocytes (males). These produce a single macrogamete or a number of
microgametes in a host cell. After being fertilized by a microgamete, the macrogamete develops into an oocyst.
The oocysts have resistant walls and are discharged unsporulated in the feces. Oocysts do not survive well at
temperatures below ~30°C or above 40°C; within this temperature range, oocysts may survive ≥1 yr.
• Of the numerous species of Eimeria or Isospora that can infect a particular host, not all are pathogenic.
Concurrent infections with two or more species, some of which may not normally be considered pathogenic, also
influence clinical disease. Within pathogenic species, strains may vary in virulence

8. Clinical findings
• Clinical signs of coccidiosis are due to destruction of the intestinal epithelium and, frequently,
the underlying connective tissue of the mucosa.
• Diarrhea/dysentery
• Tenesmus (thickened and inflamed colonic mucosa)
• appetite normal or inappetence,
• Mild abdominal pain in lambs,
• nervous signs in calves with coccidiosis in cold climates,
• Loss of body weight, anemia in some cases but not common
• Diarrhea without blood in feces of pig lets.
• Diarrhea with large amount of blood in foals (Copious blood in feaces)
• Severe straining even rectum prolapse (poultry)

9. Diagnosis
1. Fecal examination
• salt or sugar flotation methods
2. Merozite in Intestinal tissue
• Finding appreciable numbers of oocysts of
pathogenic species in the feces is diagnostic
(>100,000 oocysts/g of feces in severe
outbreaks)
• it is not always possible to find oocysts in a
single fecal sample; multiple fecal examinations
of one animal

10. Differential
diagnosis
• Rotavirus and coronavirus diarrhea
• enterotoxemia
• Collibacillosis
• Salmonellosis
• Helminthesis

11. Treatment
• treatment includes
Amprolium 10mg/kg, q 24hr, PO for 5 days
<D/F powder>
Sulfamethazine 50-110mg/kg, q 24hr, PO for 5 days
<D/F bolus, inj, powder> D/I with thiopentone
sodium & warfrin
Decoquinate 167g/kg of feed for 28 days <Donot mix
with other coccidiostats>
• In dehydrated animals, fluid therapy should be done

12. Prevention
• Maintain low stocking rates both in housing and on pasture
• Remove food contaminated with faeces
• Ensure good placement of feeding and water troughs
• Move creep feeders at regular intervals
• If the animals are kept indoors, provide plenty of fresh
bedding
• Keep areas of shelter as clean as possible
• Do not turn-out calves in the spring to pasture that has been
grazed by calves in the previous year
• Do not feed young cattle hay made from pasture with high
levels of oocysts
• Treat severely affected animals with an anticoccidialon the
advice of a vet
• If necessary, give fluid therapy with electrolytes

13. Presented by
Dr. IHTISHAM UL HAQ