Prevalence of Eimeria species in industrial and alternative bred chicken

Abstract

Eimeria infection causes a great problem in chicken, such as, reduction in weight gain and increase in feed conversion, with significant economic losses. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence and the species of Eimeria sp. in two groups, one group from industrial raised Hubbard line treated with Premix with coccidiostatic drugs 7 days before slaughter and one group from alternative raised Redro Plumé line without treatment. Parasitologic analysis were done on 100 samples (n=50/group) with the diagnose of a mix infection of seven species: Eimeria tenella, E. necatrix, E. acervulina, E. maxima, E. brunetti, E. mitis, E. mivati, in both groups. There was a normal distribution of oocists only in the industrial group. Oocists found in the second sampling was statistically different from the first sampling (P=0,023) and from the first (P=0,016) and from the second sampling (P=0,028) of the alternative group. E. maxima was the most prevalent species in the treated and untreated groups.